Iowa players battling muscle disorder

IOWA CITY, IA – According to the University of Iowa, 13 football players were hospitalized last week with a muscular problem as a result of hard offseason workouts that left them with significant discomfort and stained urine.

The athletes have rhabdomyolysis, a stress-induced disease that can destroy cells and cause kidney damage and, in severe cases, death, according to school spokesperson Tom Moore at a news conference two days after the players were admitted to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics in Iowa City.

The players, who were not identified, were claimed to be in stable health and responding well to treatment, which included bed rest and the provision of hydrating fluids. Moore stated that he did not know when the players will be released.

Paul Federici, director of football operations, stated that the players began working out last Thursday after returning from winter vacation. Some of them complained to medical professionals following a workout on Monday, with symptoms including soreness throughout the body and tea-colored urine, and other players were instructed they should seek treatment if they experienced similar symptoms, he said.

According to ESPN.com’s Adam Rittenberg, all five Iowa strength trainers were present at these practices.

Federici, a former athletic trainer, said he’s never seen the illness among Iowa student-athletes before. He said he was still looking into the workouts, but they were no different than in past years during what he considered a vital seven-week preparation stretch.

“It’s difficult. It is audacious. “The student-athletes are aware of this,” he said. “This is an outlier. We’ve never seen anything like this before.”

He stated that the players range in age from freshmen to upperclassmen and play a variety of positions.

One of those admitted to the hospital is freshman linebacker Jim Poggi of Towson, Md., whose father, Biff Poggi, said his son complained to trainers on Monday after experiencing stiffness for several days. He claims that his son’s pain began last Thursday with a lower-body workout that included 100 squats in a certain period of time and hauling a sled 100 yards. It worsened after an upper-body workout on Friday, and Monday’s training “didn’t go well.” His urine was stained, so the team’s medical staff sent him to the hospital for treatment.

Kirk Ferentz, Gary Barta, and team doctor Ned Amendola were all out of town on business and did not attend the news conference. Chris Doyle, the team’s strength and conditioning coach for the past 12 years, and other strength coaches who oversaw the sessions were not available to press.

Doyle is nationally recognized as a player development pioneer, transforming sometimes skinny freshmen into physical specimens by the time they graduate. Ferentz has stated that this is a critical component of his program’s success.

Biff Poggi, a Baltimore high school football coach, expressed concern about the situation but expressed confidence that his son will heal and rejoin the squad. He stated that the hospitalized athletes are both disappointed and eager to return to practice.

Biff Poggi stated that his son’s treatment has not included dialysis, but rather bed rest, IV fluids, and blood work to check that no kidney damage has occurred.

Another player, Detroit freshman defensive lineman Carl Davis, said on Sunday that he couldn’t walk or feel his arms after executing 100 squats and 100 bench presses, and that he had “a whole weekend of soreness.” Tanner Miller, a freshman defensive back from Kalona, Iowa, posted on Tuesday that he had a “night in the hospital… couldn’t be a worse day.”

Alan DiBona of the Des Moines Register confirmed to the Des Moines Register that his son, freshman linebacker Shane DiBona, was among the 13 hospitalized.

Shane DiBona described a workout on Facebook last week. “I had to squat 240 pounds 100 times while timing myself. “I can’t walk and I fell down the stairs… life’s (sic) great,” according to the Register.

Alan DiBona informed the newspaper that he had talked to his son and that “he’s doing great.”

The common factor, according to University of Iowa doctor John Stokes, a kidney specialist who is not involved in the athletes’ treatment, is that they all participated in vigorous activity, which typically causes the condition in otherwise healthy young individuals. According to him, rhabdomyolysis is frequent among military recruits at boot camp, and therapy mainly focuses on limiting kidney damage.

“I’ve been at UI for 32 years and I don’t think I’ve seen 13 people get rhabdomyolysis,” he told me. “It’s a fairly common condition.” This cluster is rare.”