Overcoming a sports injury to return back to the field

SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – We’re talking about a familiar face, KTIV Weekend Morning Anchor RJ Breen. Prior to his time on Signal Hill, he was an area college athlete.

Now, we take a look back at his days in uniform. He just wrapped up football season with the Briar Cliff Chargers and it was time to take his talent to the track.

“I was really excited. I love running track ever since I started back in middle school. To be able to keep doing that at a collegiate level, I was ecstatic,” said former Briar Cliff University athlete RJ Breen.

Running the 200-meter dash for the first indoor track meet of his college career in Seward, Nebraska at Concordia University.

“To be able to throw on the uniform and put the spikes back on, I was juiced up,” said Breen.

RJ Breen was a freshman at Briar Cliff University, and he was ready to take home a win for the Chargers.

“You’re running against kids from tri-state. Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and I mean all across the country. I mean some of them were from across the globe,” said Breen.

He remembers the day vividly.

“This was during COVID, no spectators. This is all on a live stream,” said Breen.

He was in lane 5.

“Everybody is off, about 50 meters through it. Coming around the corner, if you look faintly, you’ll see me right here, boom,” said Breen.

“This is the clavicle bone. He broke right in the middle third of the clavicle which is the most common area to break,” said Dr. Joshua Hockett.

CNOS Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr. Josh Hockett, specializes in orthopaedic trauma.

“Direct lateral blow to the shoulder,” said Dr. Hockett.

Dr. Hockett said when he looked at his injury film it was clear he had significant displacement.

“They were greater than 100 percent displaced. He had greater than two cm of shortening and there’s some good literature out there saying nowadays if you have to pick a clavicle fracture to treat that’s the most beneficial one to treat with surgery,” Dr. Hockett.

Breen underwent surgery where Dr. Hockett was able to re-align the fracture. Because he was an athlete and physically in shape, post-recovery went well.

“I usually start letting them move their shoulder immediately after surgery just based on their pain tolerance to try and keep things as mobile as possible,” said Dr. Hockett.

As far as lifting, Dr. Hockett restricted the movement for about six weeks while Breen underwent physical therapy. On average the three-month mark is normally when complete healing is shown, and full contact sports can be played again. Breen’s athleticism contributed to his healing staying right on track.

“As you can see here, this is his left clavicle. This is after the fixation has been performed. This is probably his final X-ray showing good healing of his clavicle fracture. So, you can see a plate on the front of the bone and then another plate right on the top of the bone with multiple screws spanning the fracture,” said Dr. Hockett.

Dr. Hockett said it’s his mission is to help patients get back on the road to normalcy.

“I just like getting people back to their normal daily function. They come in a very severe and injured, critical state. We are able to restore function and get them back to a functional status sometimes not always what they were before, but at least restore some resemblance of normalcy to their life and that’s pretty cool to watch that process,” said Dr. Hockett.

Breen trusted the process. His recovery road finally led him back to the grit on the gridiron.

“I actually went into spring ball after that 12-week point, eased into drills and stuff like that. A lot of the non-contact stuff. And probably about two to three weeks after that, roughly, I was full board going back to banging helmets, knocking pads and the whole nine yards,” said Breen.

Breen was able to play the full season back on the football field. CNOS Orthopaedic Surgeon, Dr. Josh Hockett practices at the CNOS Dakota Dunes location.

For more information on sports medicine at CNOS, follow this link.

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