A 35-foot fall that left South Florida kicker Maikon Bonani with a broken vertebra will not result in surgery, both the St. Petersburg Times and Tampa Tribune are reporting.
Bonani, who suffered the injury while working at a Busch Gardens amusement park, will instead wear a back brace that doctors hope will allow the vertebra to heal naturally.
“We thank the Lord for that, and now we can just focus on letting him get healed properly,” Bonani’s high school coach, Rod Shafer, told The Times.
The kicker will be in the brace for a period of six to eight weeks, so there is still a slight chance he could see the field in 2009. However, it’s more likely that the sophomore will be redshirted.
Bonani has been hospitalized since the accident last weekend, but The Tribune is reporting that the kicker will be released from the hospital today.
