A Great Day For Haruki Nakamura
By Joe Barnes
On this day, June 14th of 2010, let it be known that Haruki Nakamura had a pretty rockin’ time.
Not only did his homeland of Japan win their first game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup 1-0 over Cameroon, the legend that is Ken Murray wrote something about him! While a lot of the news on The Sun’s Ravens blog is dull and boring, this news is actually pretty good, talking about a return for Nakamura that would be ahead of schedule.
After breaking his fibula in a November Monday Night game against the Browns in his hometown of Cleveland, Nakamura has made a speedy recovery and has been practicing with the team in the past few weeks.
Click “Continue Reading” to see some more specific details about Nakamura’s recovery and expected return.
I’ll keep this short, as I know you have better things to do on a Monday night, but here’s some of the important excerpts from Murray’s post:
"“I’m 90 percent” back, Nakamura said. “Once I build my stamina back up, I’ll be good. But if I didn’t practice, I wouldn’t be this far along.”“I’d never been carried off the field in any sport. In Japan, you’re not supposed to show any emotion or pain. I didn’t know how to handle it when I was out. But it made me a better person, and it put things in perspective. I got back to the things that helped get me to this point.”He sat out the team’s first passing camp, but slowly worked himself back into the picture.“At the beginning of OTA’s, I mentally wasn’t ready,” Nakamura said. “Then I got six plays here, six plays there, and I started to feel really good. The last couple weeks, I’ve gotten better and better.”"
So all in all, it’s encouraging news. Nakamura is a great option on special teams and without him, the depth at safety is nowhere near as deep as when he’s healthy and in top form. He’s only gotten better since being drafted, and knowing his work ethic, he’ll probably see a lot more time on the field this season.
This news follows the news that Lardarius Webb and Fabian Washington were ahead of schedule with their recoveries from torn ACLs, so everything in the secondary is looking up. With all hands on deck, these guys are scary good, and hopefully we’ll be able to see that come September.