By Nick Wagoner
Senior Writer

The Rams have lost their fair share of players to injury this year but perhaps none more disappointing than defensive end C.J. Ah You, if only because of the way he suffered his injury.

Rams coach Steve Spagnuolo announced Thursday that Ah You has a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament, an injury that will require surgery and end his season prematurely.

“I talked with him this morning,” Spagnuolo said. “He was pretty down. I want him to kind of stay in the fold so I asked him before he has the surgery to keep coming to meetings and getting his treatments to get the swelling down.”

Perhaps the most disappointing part of Ah You’s injury is where it happened. Injuries are indeed a part of the game but more often than not they happen in games and not on the practice field.

But Ah You suffered his injury on the indoor surface at the Russell Training Center on Wednesday afternoon when he got his left foot caught under another player and then a different player rolled into his left knee.

Ah You immediately crumpled to the ground in severe pain.

“Injuries are part of the game, there’s nothing we can do about it,” Spagnuolo said. “The ones that really kind of stick are the ones that happen in practice. You try to avoid that…and then you have a freak accident and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

Not that there’s ever a good time for a season ending injury for any player but it’s especially unfortunate for Ah You who had come so far in 2009.

Entering this year, Ah You had been nothing more than a practice squad player toiling in obscurity and hoping to work his way into an opportunity to make the 53-man roster.

With one final year of practice squad eligibility, Ah You knew the clock was ticking on his chance to make a roster.

“CJ, I don’t think anybody really knew about him,” Spagnuolo said. “He was a practice squad guy, unknown. He earned his way. That’s a credit to him. He didn’t come in with a lot of hoopla coming out of college and ended up earning a lot of playing time.”

Ah You had a breakout preseason, regularly making plays on the practice field and, even more important, in the exhibition season.

By the time the preseason games were over, Ah You had played well enough that the coaching staff had little choice but to place him on the roster.
Once he arrived, Ah You didn’t just languish on the gameday inactive list, working in regularly on defense in the team’s four defensive end alignment in the nickel package and chipping in on a variety of special teams.

In nine games, Ah You had 18 tackles with a sack and two passes defended as well as three special teams stops.

Spagnuolo made it clear to Ah You that he wants him to keep his head up and reminded him of the adversity he overcame just to land a roster spot.

“What I told him was when I first got here, he didn’t really surface right away and he really earned himself a spot initially in training camp and then continued to earn playing time,” Spagnuolo said. “He really was a key guy in the nickel when we have four defensive ends out there. It’s OK. He’s been through this before and he has bounced back from this surgery before.”

Ah You did have a similar surgery in his days at Oklahoma and was able to return to earn a roster spot.

With Ah You out of the mix, the Rams will turn to Victor Adeyanju to fill many of the roles he held. Adeyanju is no stranger to filling in for an injured player and has enough experience to contribute.

The Rams won’t immediately fill Ah You’s roster spot and place him on injured reserve because it’s so late in the week. That situation will likely be addressed early next week.

“Anytime you lose a guy like him, it’s a little bit of a setback but that’s the nature of our game,” defensive coordinator Ken Flajole said. “People get injured and the next guy has to step up. CJ was doing a great job for us. I’m sick for the kid because he was really making great progress and I just hope everything goes well for him and we get him back down the road.”