SAN ANTONIO (August 1, 2010) - L.J. Jenkins must wonder how he might fare in the world standings if he could only stay healthy for an entire season.
Jenkins, who is competing in San Antonio, underwent a pre-event examination by Dr. Tandy Freeman on Saturday, and will have surgery on his free hand either Tuesday or Thursday in Dallas.
According to Freeman, Jenkins dislocated a bone in his left hand. In addition to resetting the bone, a hand specialist will reattach a ligament and insert pins. Freeman added that Jenkins will have to “hope the bone doesn’t die” because the blood supply has been cut off.
Freeman termed the injury “rare.”
“He said that I may not get 100-percent of my motion back in it,” Jenkins said, “but he made it sound like it’s a pretty big surgery I’m fixing to have to go through. I should be back in two weeks with a cast on.
“I don’t know what all it was. All I know he said it wasn’t a very good injury.”
Jenkins sustained the injury Tuesday night when he dismounted his event-winning short round bull at a Touring Pro event in Cheyenne, Wyo.
As he came down, he used both hands to catch himself. “I knew something wasn’t right,” he said. “I couldn’t straighten it, I couldn’t move my fingers.”
Jenkins is competing in San Antonio this weekend. He split fourth and fifth place in the average with Cody Nance in Round 1.
“On my first bull it didn’t bother me much,” said Jenkins, who scored 86.75 points on Shortcut. “It’s just hard taking my wrap. I lost a bunch of my rope just in the chute trying to get ready, but I think if that doesn’t bother me too much, it shouldn’t bother me at all.”
With no Built Ford Tough Series event on the schedule next weekend, Jenkins said that he’s hoping his latest setback will only cost him one event and that he will be ready to return to competition in Memphis, Tenn.
Jenkins, who is ranked 18th in the world standings, missed three events going into the summer break because of an injury to his riding hand. His best season was in 2006 when he finished seventh in the world standings and was the PBR World Finals event winner.
