I just left Stamford High School’s football practice — I’m working on a column on Pat Atkinson that will run in Friday’s paper — and coach Kevin Jones told me that right now Khairi Fortt is 50-50 for Friday night’s game at Brien McMahon. Jones said he will meet with Fortt’s father, Guy, Friday morning to determine whether the star linebacker will return after missing the last game and a half.
Jones told me two interesting things regarding the situation, one of which is that the exact nature of Fortt’s injury has not been properly revealed. As reported, Fortt sprained the ACL and suffered a bone bruise in his right knee. Both of those have healed. What is slowing Fortt’s recovery is a small tear in the cartilage behind the patella. It is causing Fortt pain and can only get better with rest.
“Right now there is not better than a 50 percent chance that he will play,” Jones said. “I’m hopeful.”
Jones also said the handling of the situation last week led to a lot of misunderstanding and undue criticism of Fortt, who hurt his knee in the season opener against Ridgefield and missed last week’s game against Greenwich. Jones said that the decision about whether Fortt would play against the Cardinals was up to the player, and a lot of people misinterpreted that to be frustration on Jones’ part with Fortt.
Fortt also took a lot of shots from people who thought he was ducking Greenwich, babying himself or more concerned about his long-term future than helping his team.
Jones said this week he is taking responsibility for whether Fortt, who will reveal his college choice during a ceremony at Stamford High School Monday afternoon, is back in action.
“People used it as an opportunity to take cheap shots at the kid,” Jones said. “It was not a case of he didn’t want to play. He couldn’t play.”
