Thomas’ surgery called ‘minor’

Steve Guiremand

Thursday, May 10, 2001 | 9:29 a.m.

Like any good college quarterback, Jason Thomas was busy studying videotape on Wednesday. But Thomas wasn't breaking down his throwing mechanics or the defensive tendencies of a future UNLV football foe.

"I actually have a video tape of the surgery they performed on my shoulder (Tuesday)," Thomas said. "They put a lens in there and actually recorded the surgery. I've already watched it."

Thomas?

Shoulder surgery?

Yikes!

But Rebel fans can breathe a sigh of relief. The 90-minute arthroscopic procedure, performed on an outpatient basis by Van Nuys, Calif., shoulder specialist Dr. Steven Snyder, was called "minor" by both Thomas and UNLV head coach John Robinson. The 6-foot-4, 230-pound junior All-America candidate should be 100 percent recovered by the end of June, about six weeks before the start of fall camp.

"I'm fine," Thomas said. "It was a little minor surgery. There was cartilage that was rubbing wrong in there. So they went in and cleaned it up a little."

Thomas had complained of soreness in his throwing shoulder all during spring practice. And when the Sun first reported on April 9 that Thomas was going to have an MRI done on the shoulder, everyone from Robinson to UNLV's training staff felt the injury was probably just soreness from overthrowing in spring drills.

But a week after UNLV concluded spring practice, Thomas was still in pain and had a procedure called an arthrogram performed.

"They inject dye into the shoulder joint and then X-ray it to see if there are any tears or anything in there," UNLV trainer Kyle Wilson said. "But it came back normal."

Thomas then underwent an MRI which Wilson said showed "a small irregularity in the cartilage" in Thomas' left shoulder.

"It's called the glenoid labrum," Wilson said. "It helps connect the shoulder blade with the upper arm. There's a thin layer of cartilage there to keep bone from rubbing on bone, and it was frayed a little in one spot."

Wilson said the injury is a common one for baseball pitchers.

"It's a very, very minor operation," Wilson said. "They go in there arthroscopically and smooth things out. The good news is when they went in there they didn't see anything else. Sometimes, even after all the tests, you go in there and find something you didn't expect."

Wilson said Thomas could have suffered the injury either from throwing or landing on the shoulder. He said Thomas would have his arm in a sling for a week and would resume throwing in four to six weeks.

One day after the surgery, however, Thomas said he already had taken the sling off.

"It feels fine," he said. "I don't have that 'pop' when I throw anymore. All spring I had kind of a hitch in my throwing motion because of it. But that's gone now. I can't wait to get back out there and start throwing again."

Robinson said Thomas, who had his right foot in a cast for almost two months before spring drills to allow a stress fracture to heal properly, will concentrate on speed and running drills while his shoulder mends.

"And if he can't play quarterback for us, we'll just move him to linebacker," he joked.