Bru McCoy addresses his injury rehab, timetable for return during Tennessee Pro Day

Tennessee wide receiver Bru McCoy is close to being back to full health and cleared to practice with his teammates again after suffering a gruesome leg injury in 2023. And the veteran wideout can hardly contain his excitement.

Though he knows he needs to pace himself, McCoy shared that he’s already amped to make his return in the season opener in the fall. While he knows he needs to temper that feeling a bit, McCoy shared on SEC Network from Tennessee’s Pro Day on Wednesday that he’s already getting excited to take the field again.

“I mean I’m so excited,” McCoy said. “It’ll keep you up at night a little bit. I know we’re sitting here in the spring, but it feels like we could play tomorrow, to me, everyday.”

McCoy fractured and dislocated his right ankle on Sept. 30, getting carted off the field before being taken to the hospital, where it was surgically repaired.

Months later, McCoy recalled the emotions of that moment and the realizations sinking in. And rather than sorrow or even fear, McCoy felt something else: Frustration.

Along with missing out on the rest of that game and the season, some level of him understood a daunting road was ahead.

“Yeah — that moment on the cart, I was just thinking like, ‘Dang, I’m not going to finish this game. I’m not going to finish the season.’ And it kind of all hits you at once and you’re just frustrated,” McCoy said. “I was really frustrated. I wasn’t even feeling sorry for myself yet. And then as time goes on, you start to kind of look down like the timeline. ‘OK, it’s going to take some time and I’ve got some work to do in front of me.’ So once I got the idea, ‘Hey, this is how long this should take and here’s your body of work, you better get to it.’ Once I had that, it was easy sailing.” 

Now almost six months removed from the injury, McCoy shared that he’s in the final stages of his rehab and quite close to being cleared to participate in practice again.

“We’re getting really close,” McCoy said. “At the point now where I’m running. I’m hitting my top speeds and now we’re just working on [decelerating] and moving laterally. So I’m just doing my best to be a good teammate and kind of coach guys up, have fun.”