On Wednesday, Miami Dolphins linebacker Matt Roth returned to practice for the first time since failing a conditioning test on the first day of training camp -- thus ending a strange roller-coaster ride of mysterious illnesses and phantom injuries that lasted almost three months. At least we thought the ride was over.Roth apparently suffered an ankle injury in his first practice back and will miss Miami's game against New Orleans this Sunday.
Back in August, Roth failed his conditioning test. He failed even though he had signed a statement that every player signs, saying that he was not injured in any way, shape or form.
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Roth cited an illness as the reason why he flunked the test. He told head coach Tony Sparano that he just didn't feel well. Tests were done and blood drawn but everything in Roth's blood work tested fine. His mysterious illness couldn't be verified. During all these medical tests Roth's agent, Drew Rosenhaus, announced to the media that Roth had a bad groin.
Uh-oh.
Unable to find an illness and unaware of a reason why Roth would mislead the Dolphins, the team placed Roth on the non-football injury list.
That was then. Fast-forward to the present.
Roth deemed himself ready to practice on Wednesday and got out there with the intensity of a rookie, trying to pry balls away from receivers and playing aggressively. Maybe he played too aggressively.
Hurt again, Roth was only able to watch practice on Thursday -- one day after his first practice of the season. He appeared on the sidelines with a heavily taped ankle as he viewed team drills. His new ankle injury puts to rest any questions as to whether or not he'll be able to play this weekend against New Orleans (he won't). What's not solved is this intriguing story of illness, injury and inability to play football.
The next step for the Dolphins will be to find out when, or if, Roth can return from this new injury.
