NCAA Football

Arkansas Football Player Suffers ‘Perforated Colon’ On Kickoff Return (Video)

Dennis Johnson, a junior running back/return man for the University of Arkansas, got hurt in Saturday’s 31-7 win over Louisiana-Monroe and is now out indefinitely. Unfortunate to be sure, but what’s really striking is the nature of Johnson’s injury.

That’s because Johnson got hurt by awkwardly landing on the ball after fielding a kickoff – not something you hear about every day. Worse, the nature of the injury was “bowel”-related, another unusual, very painful-sounding prospect.

SPORTSbyBROOKS later got some more details on the injury, none of which made it sound any less squirm-inducing:

An Arkansas media source told me today that Johnson perforated his colon, which required emergency surgery and will end his season.

Emphasis ours. Needless to say, that sounds brutal. Arkansas coach Bobby Petrino said Johnson’s “doing well,” which is good to hear, but it’s still too bad that he’s robbed of the chance to be a key contributor on what was expected to be the best Arkansas team in years…and to have it happen in such a freak, gruesome way.

Video of the play that apparently led to the injury is below. Don’t worry – you can’t see anything too graphic; you can only get a general idea of what happened. Hopefully Johnson recovers fully, as quickly as possible.

Photo via