Rebels Thomas reinjures right foot

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Jan. 15, 2001 | 10:47 a.m.

Steve Guiremand

UNLV quarterback Jason Thomas will have his sore right foot placed in a cast later this week after an MRI revealed the Rebels' star was starting to develop a stress fracture in his second metatarsal bone.

UNLV trainer Kyle Wilson said Thomas will likely wear the cast for about four weeks to allow the foot to heal. He will then be fitted with a walking boot for another couple of weeks before beginning light jogging and running.

The good news? Thomas is expected to be 100 percent when the Rebels begin spring practice in mid-March. However, any long shot chance that the 6-4, 230-pound sophomore will play basketball this season for the Rebels has ended.

Thomas learned of the injury after meeting with Dr. Robert Chandler of the Kerlan-Jobe Clinic last week in Los Angeles. Chandler is the same doctor who performed surgery on Thomas' disolcated and broken left ankle suffered during his senior year at Compton's Dominguez High School.

"It's one of those things," Thomas said. "Thank goodness I won't need surgery on it. There's a crack in a bone (in the right foot) and they want to put an immobilizer on it."

Wilson said Thomas may have suffered the injury during UNLV's 31-14 victory over Arkansas in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 21.

"He re-injured that sprained foot in the game," Wilson said. "This was the first time he had seen the doctor since he re-injured it. They did some tests and an MRI and found that he was starting to get a little bit of a stress fracture in there. Normal protocol is to immobilize it and rest it so it can heal."

Wilson said the injury was different from the one Thomas had limped on during the last half of the season. Thomas severely sprained the foot in the first half of UNLV's 20-19 loss at Colorado State.

"It's a fairly new injury," Wilson said. "It's less than a month old. A stress fracture is a progressive thing. If you kept running and jumping on it, the bone eventually would break and surgery would be an option to repair it. That's why it's important that we immobilize the foot now so nothing more serious will happen."

Thomas will return to Los Angeles to meet with Chandler later this week to have his foot casted.

"I'll definitely be ready to play in spring ball," he said.