FORT COLLINS – Weston Richburg was one of the first to notice. The Colorado State center nudged quarterback Pete Thomas.
“Wow, Sisson’s out here,” he said.
Thomas looked at Mychal Sisson like he was a shiny new car and smiled, knowing the enormous impact the senior linebacker’s eventual return will mean to CSU.
Sisson was on the practice field for the first time in two months today since breaking his right ankle in CSU’s second game of the season, against Northern Colorado, on Sept. 10. He practiced in shells (shoulder pads and a helmet) but did do some hitting – both individually off to the side and in a team group setting.
His status for Saturday remains questionable, but he’s closing in on returning to the team.
“I’m still taking it one day at a time,” Sisson said after practice. “We’ll see how it goes tomorrow, once I go out there and practice again. I’m just going to ramp it up everyday and see how it goes.
Asked how he felt about today’s practice Sisson said, “I actually felt real good. There were a couple of times I felt I was thinking about my ankle a little bit, seeing if it was going to hold up. But it held up. That’s the only thing, just getting my mind to stop thinking about it and just go out there and play like I normally did.”
Since the injury, Sisson was on crutches, in a walking boot and then in an ankle brace. He started running in a straight line last week during CSU’s Wednesday practice session. He moved into some change-of-direction work on Monday, and then more intensive work today, which included some hitting. He said there’s been no swelling in ankle recently, but it has been “stiff” in mornings though he’s been able to walk that off.
Sisson’s original timetable to return for the Nov. 19 game at Texas Christian, and by all rights it still is. That’s the next game on CSU’s schedule, but the team would welcome him back with open arms if he was able to play on Saturday against San Diego State. A defense that has regressed over the course of the season could use the senior leader, especially against SDSU running back Ronnie Hillman, who ranks second in the nation in rushing.
Sisson said his conditioning wasn’t as bad as he thought it might be given the fact doing any kind of cardio was difficult at best with the broken ankle. But CSU head trainer Terry DeZeeuw put Sisson through pool work, elliptical work and treadmill work as time progressed and it seems to have prevented the linebacker from falling too far behind in his conditioning.
Everyone is playing it cautious, but were happy nonetheless to see Sisson back out on the field.
“It brought some energy to the team,” Thomas said. “I have no idea if he’ll play out there on Saturday, I’ll be surprised if he does. But just having him out there at practice was pretty cool.”
Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com