SURREY, B.C. — There were days this fall when B.C. Lions quarterback Nathan Rourke needed to take his mind off football.
After a stunning start to the CFL season, the Canadian was sidelined in mid-August by a foot injury that required surgery and doctors ordered him to stay off the field.
“For a good second there, I was trying to forget about football," Rourke said Tuesday. "I was trying to distract myself with friends and family and their support.
"I watched a lot of things on the internet. … There were days where you don't want to even think about it. So I just went on movie marathons and stuff like that."
Now, after nearly nine weeks of recovery and rehabilitation, the 24-year-old is getting back into game action.
Lions head coach and co-general manager Rick Campbell said Tuesday that he expects Rourke to start on Friday when B.C. (12-5) wraps its regular-season campaign against the league-leading Blue Bombers (14-3) in Winnipeg.
Rourke will play "about a quarter" just to get back into the rhythm of a game, Campbell said.
“It's part of what we've talked about over the weeks," he said. "We could go the route of just letting him play in the (West Division semifinal), but I think he's going to feel better getting back out there and getting some live action and just getting back to it. So that's all part of this whole path back to playing.”
The Ohio University alum is pleased with the plan.
“I'm just happy to be able to have a chance to play and I think this week is a bonus, for sure," Rourke said. "I think that throughout the process, we were pretty sure that I was going to be able to play in the playoff games and we were kind of wait-and-see about anything else. To be at this point is pretty cool.”
The six-foot-two, 209-pound quarterback was a dominant force early in the CFL season, throwing for 3,281 yards and 25 touchdowns with 10 interceptions over nine games.
He couldn't run routes while rehabbing, so Rourke stayed fit by swimming three or four times a week, starting about four weeks post-surgery.
The regime has done him well, said veteran wide receiver Bryan Burnham.
“Looks like he hasn't lost a beat, man," he said after practice Tuesday. "It's fun to watch him. He's a special player. And good to have his energy back out there.”
Burnham, too, is working his way back from injury after suffering a broken wrist in a 25-11 loss to the Calgary Stampeders on Sept. 24.
The Lions have taken the University of Tulsa product off the six-game injured list but he's not expected to slot back into the lineup until Nov. 6 when B.C. hosts Calgary in the West Division semifinal.
B.C. will get some other key pieces back for Friday's game, however, including receiver Lucky Whitehead, who's missed three outings with an ankle injury.
“I’ve got to be smart, obviously. I’m still in the healing process, but obviously I can't go out there and think too much about it," Whitehead said of his return. "I’ve got to go out there, be myself, play fast, be smart about it.”
Despite the spate of injuries, the Lions have gone 4-4 since Rourke was hurt in a 28-10 victory over the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Aug. 19.
The team has found a lot of different ways to win games, said the QB, who's remained a fixture around the team's facility in Surrey, B.C., and on the sidelines.
"I saw a lot of different guys step up," Rourke said. "It wasn't just me who went down but a lot of guys go down who provide valuable minutes for us and a lot of guys stepped up. So it was really good to see.
"We weren't winning games the way we usually had in the first half of the season. So it's good to know that we can win in a variety of ways.”
Now those players who were sidelined are working their way back into the lineup — and that's exactly what you want just ahead of playoffs, Burnham said.
"Injuries happen in football, so to have all these guys kind of getting healthy and ready to make a push for this year's Grey Cup is really special," he said.
"Just got to take it one game at a time, and we still have one regular-season game to go. So, even though the playoff positions are set, (Friday's) still an important game.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 25, 2022.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
