LOS ANGELES — While his USC teammates were kicking off their spring break last Monday, USC junior wide receiver Robert Woods underwent another MRI on his surgically repaired right ankle.
While the MRI revealed no structural damage, there still is inflammation, leaving Woods to miss the remainder of spring practice.
"After continuing evaluations with Robert, we thought he would be almost full strength by now, doing everything, and he's kind of had a setback, it's not healing as fast (as team officials thought), and so our doctors recommend that (we) really sit him to make sure that it heals," USC head coach Lane Kiffin said.
"We were running him on the side so much and doing some individuals that it wasn't really healing. So let's see if we can get the thing completely healed and get that limp out of there so he can be full speed."
Woods was expected to be ready in time for the start of spring practice. It was then thought that he would be able to return Tuesday after the Trojans returned from spring break, but Kiffin scheduled another MRI for Woods over the break which revealed the news.
"It's pretty disappointing, because every day I'm out here I want to be out here with the guys," Woods said. "I kind of look at it as a positive, too. I can finally get healthy. No need to rush back. I'm just trying to look at it like my freshmen year, (when) I didn't have spring (practice) coming (into the season)."
Woods' ankle is classified as a "chronic" injury, and he did the healing process a disservice by continually playing on the hurt ankle last fall. The injury originally was suffered playing a pickup basketball game last April.
He finished his sophomore season as a Biletnikoff Award finalist, while setting USC and Pac-12 records with 111 receptions, despite missing considerable practice time with his injured ankle.
It was a season, he said, in which he had to fight through a considerable amount of pain and was "just good enough to go on Saturdays." He hopes to not have a repeat of that experience.
"I just don't want to deal with this season how it was last year — just a nagging type of injury," Woods said. "So this time off should be pretty good for me. Just finally getting healthy, no pain. I don't want to be pushing right now with pain and it just gets worse. As of right now, I'm just trying to make sure it's healthy and no inflammation."
Woods has been instructed to rest and use anti-inflammatory cream over the next month. Meanwhile, the Trojans will hit the field for the fifth of 15 spring practices on Thursday.
