It wouldn’t have been easy for Emeka Egbuka to play against Penn State just two weeks after spraining his ankle, but the Ohio State wide receiver did everything he could to try to make that happen.
“You could ask anyone at the facility, I would be here at 7 a.m. and I would leave at 9 p.m., and I wasn't doing anything physical. I was all just doing rehab on my ankle, because I was so determined to play,” Egbuka said.
After suffering the injury early in the fourth quarter of Ohio State’s first game of October against Maryland, Egbuka knew he wouldn’t be able to play the following week against Purdue. But he felt like he had a shot to play against the Nittany Lions. Technically, Egbuka was available to play against Penn State – he went through pregame warmups after being listed as questionable on the team’s injury report – but Ohio State decided to hold him out since he was only “about 80-85%” healthy by his estimation.
“If I needed to play, I definitely would have,” Egbuka said. “But we felt as if the dudes who were behind me had more than enough ability to be able to execute the job. So if one of them were to go down or something, we were in need or any type of thing, I was there. I was ready.”
Ultimately, Ohio State didn’t end up needing Egbuka to earn a 20-12 win over Penn State, and Egbuka would sit out one more game against Wisconsin – though he was considered available for that game, too – before returning to action last weekend against Rutgers.
Having never missed a game due to injury before in his entire football career, Egbuka said it was hard having to watch from the sideline, though he tried to make the best of it by doing whatever he could to support his teammates.
“It kind of sucked, I’m not gonna lie,” Egbuka said. “But I'm grateful to be where I'm at right now. I learned a lot through this experience. And I was able to support my team in a way that I hadn't before. Because you have a different role. You have a role in supporting and coaching the younger dudes so that they're ready for when that moment comes.”
Egbuka said the three games he missed made him appreciate the opportunity he has to play for Ohio State even more.
“Football is one of my passions, probably my biggest passion. So it really puts a lot of stuff into perspective,” Egbuka said.
Now a month removed from the injury, Egbuka feels healthy and capable of doing everything he could before the injury. While Egbuka had a quiet return to action against Rutgers, catching only four passes for 29 yards, he felt that had more to do with how Rutgers defended Ohio State than any lingering effects of the injury.
“Rutgers was sitting in Cover 2 all day. I was one of the leading receivers with 29 yards. So there's that component of it,” Egbuka said. “But I felt even though we may have not got the production per se, I felt that my routes were there. I felt capable and able to play the game that I know and love.”
Egbuka said he entered the Rutgers game expecting nothing less than his best from himself even though last week was his first full week of practice since he suffered the injury.
“If I'm on the field, I expect to play at a level no matter what my body feels like,” Egbuka said. “If I'm out there, in my mind, I'm 100 percent. So I'm going as hard as I can every play, and I'm doing what my team needs me to do and expects me to do.”
That said, Egbuka expects to be even healthier this week in his second game back from injury against Michigan State – an opponent against whom Egbuka had five catches for a career-high 143 yards and a touchdown last season.
“I thought I felt good. I was warming up and that was the best I’ve felt up to this point,” Egbuka said of how he felt at Rutgers. “And there's really no doubts in my mind, if something else doesn't happen, that I'm gonna feel great this coming Saturday, too. So each week has been better than the last.”
“If I'm out there, in my mind, I'm 100%. So I'm going as hard as I can every play, and I'm doing what my team needs me to do and expects me to do.”– Emeka Egbuka on his health
Statistically, Egbuka hasn’t had the kind of season he was expected to have going into his junior year. After catching 74 passes for 1,151 yards and 10 touchdowns last year, Egbuka enters Ohio State’s 10th game of 2023 with just 26 catches for 332 yards and three touchdowns.
Egbuka isn’t bothered by that, however, because he says his goal was never to rack up individual accolades this season. Now that he’s back on the field, Egbuka won’t be chasing the statistics he wasn’t able to accumulate in October; he just wants to do everything he can to help the team continue winning.
“I'm not here to make my name highly touted and win the Biletnikoff and all that type of stuff, I'm here to win championships,” Egbuka said. “So whatever my team needs me to do that given week, that's what I'm going to do.”
