Inside Nebraska’s Javin Wright’s battle with blood clots

In the early morning before a weekday training camp practice in mid-August, the senior Nebraska linebacker needed to alleviate the pain — the intensity of which crescendoed when using his right leg to press the pedals. A thought he didn’t want to believe percolated in the back of his mind.

It’s a blood clot. Again.

“‘I can’t,’” Wright said over the phone to one of Nebraska’s athletic trainers while parked. “My leg is hurting really bad. I can barely move my leg.”

Hours later, further testing at Advanced Medical Imaging confirmed Wright’s fears.

It’s a blood clot. Again.

His third run-in with blood clots since 2021, but the first flare-up since then.

Through it all, Wright is undeterred.

An MCL tear that required surgery and a stem cell injection. Bouts with blood clots, including one outbreak that necessitated surgical intervention. Labrum surgeries. Chipped bones. Torn ankle tendons. Another blood clot.

“Life is just all based on perspective,” Wright said. “There are some days where I was just like, ‘Why is this happening to me? Like, dang, again? I’ve already been down this road. I’ve seen it all. I’ve seen where it leads. Why am I driving down this road again?’ But most of the time, I was always optimistic because that’s the only way you can be.

“I love football. It’s always been my little kid dream. So whatever it takes for me to get there, I’ll take it, even if my path is a little bit more windier than most.”

Wright felt some pain in his leg — dismissing it as a strain. Nothing he couldn’t handle, so he fought through it.

“It’s probably nothing,” Wright thought.

He flew home to Arizona. Worked out at the gym owned by his dad — former Husker safety Toby Wright — and proceeded as normal.

Until he woke up one morning and discovered that his right leg was swollen and purple.

He couldn’t move his leg, and his mom jumped into action. She, at roughly 5-foot-8, carried her 6-5 son to the car and rushed him to the emergency room.

There, doctors told Wright that he could have a blood clot.

“‘It ain’t no blood clot. I’ll be fine,’” Wright remembered saying. “‘I don’t even know what that is.’”

Wright learned. Quickly. Further testing showed that Wright had “a blood clot circling around his whole leg.”

“‘Wow. That’s a shocker,’” he said.

Wright remained in Arizona over the next few months, missing summer workouts in Lincoln while they treated him.

Wright felt the pain again. Same leg, below his knee and in his calf.

But he didn’t tell anyone. Not at first. In the months since his first bout with blood clots, he’d earned a coveted role for Nebraska in kickoff coverage. He wasn’t about to give that up.

And then he couldn’t run — “turning himself in” before Nebraska boarded the plane to Oklahoma for the season’s fourth game.

Wright needed surgery — one that effectively sucked the blood clots out of his leg like a vacuum.

Clots. Forty-one of them.

The four-dozen-plus clots of varying size and thickness were laid out on a blue medical cloth and photographed for Wright to see when he woke up. Some were as small as gravel pebbles. One was longer than the 6-inch, blood-stained ruler positioned next to the clots for scale.

Wright missed the rest of the season.

Wright felt “every emotion you could possibly think of” after receiving the ultrasound.

Once again, he was going to be sidelined for something entirely out of his control — and at first, he didn’t know when he’d be able to come back. If at all. Because his medical team prescribed a three-month stint on blood thinners. That would correspond with the earliest possible return date for the USC game on Nov. 16.

In a Hail Mary to try to save his season, Wright flew to the University of North Carolina to meet with the doctors who oversee the country’s only “Athletes and Blood Clots” program.

UNC’s medical team devised a different plan: six weeks on blood thinners, and then a schedule that has him on blood thinners for most of the week, but not in the lead-up or during the game.

“I don’t know if anyone in the country has ever done this before,” Wright said. “(The doctor) said, ‘There’s a lot of risks to this. Are you willing to take the risks?’ I said, without hesitation, ‘Yeah.’”

Because of the medicine schedule, he can’t fully participate in practice. Instead, he stands 30 or 40 yards behind the defense and mirrors fellow linebackers John Bullock and Mikai Gbayor for “active mental reps.”

The end of Wright’s six weeks coincided with the Purdue game. Wright, serving as one of Nebraska’s game captains, was in on 13 plays for the Husker defense — more than he anticipated — and had three tackles in his debut.

“He hasn’t done a thing, really, and I just put him out there,” coach Matt Rhule said. “Luckily, as he said to me, ‘I’m a ninth-year senior,’ — whatever he is, so he’s got a lot of reps in the bank.”

Against Rutgers, Wright saw the field on 27 plays — recording four tackles.

“They didn’t realize how out of shape I was,” Wright said, laughing. “After the first play, I was sucking air. My coaches kept me involved, but physically, I was regressing fast. I’ve never been out of shape. I’ve always been at the top end of being conditioned. This is hard. This is hard getting back in shape.

“I’m in a weird spot where I’m working on conditioning. I’m working on maintaining my weight. In the middle of the season, while not practicing, only playing in the game. It is a very big balancing act. Hopefully, I don’t have to do this for the rest of my career.”

Regardless of what lies ahead, Wright’s fighting spirit has left a mark on his team.

“It’s really a dream come true just to be out there with him,” defensive lineman Ty Robinson said.

Defensive coordinator Tony Wright, linebackers coach Rob Dvoracek and defensive lineman Jimari Butler praised Wright’s work ethic. Gbayor noted Wright’s enthusiasm. Athletic trainer Drew Hamblin credited Wright’s mental aptitude.

“I’ve weathered the storm,” Wright said. “I’ve already been through hell and back several times. Now that I’m in this position today, I’m mentally strong. And people can never take that away from me.”