Last week, Rex Ryan made it sound like Seantrel Henderson was staying away from the Buffalo Bills by choice and hadn't contacted him to let the coach know what his outlook was. Henderson was placed on the non-football illness list in December following a flare-up of Crohn's disease, costing him five games. Over the weekend, Henderson's agent told a much different tale of silent phones.
"To this day, nobody has called [Henderson]," since he was placed on the reserve list agent Alan Herman told The Buffalo News. Saying that was "unusual," Herman went on to explain the suffering and surgeries his client went through this offseason without being contacted by anyone on the coaching staff. Henderson had two surgeries - one to remove the inflamed portions of his intestines and one to reattach the intestines a few months later.
"It has to be treated properly," Herman said. "He had the surgery and had to wear a bag for a number of months after that, which is no walk in the park. And he stayed close to Minnesota to make sure he was getting the right kind of treatment. Then, they basically took the bag out about a month ago. Everything is OK now to the point where once he had the second surgery and was in the hospital for three days, he's been cleared to do whatever he wants."
Following a meeting with his doctor this Wednesday, June 1st, Henderson is expected at Bills OTAs Thursday to attempt to reclaim his starting right tackle position. While given a clean bill of health saying "this should not impact his career whatsoever," it will still be an uphill climb for Henderson due to his inactivity, pain management, and weight loss, reported to be 20 pounds in just the first few weeks.
"Hopefully this will be smooth sailings for him in terms of him being able to play without pain, without stomach distress which he was going through all of last year and obviously prior to that," Herman said. "Nobody really knew what he had. Once it was diagnosed properly and he had the surgery, he should be OK now. All of the infected areas have been taken out, which we were told was the case. He should be able to resume a normal career and play pain-free."
Herman also wanted to clarify that Henderson has been in touch with the team's medical staff and players, just not the coaching staff and placed the blame at the team's feet.
"When a guy's wearing a bag and he's going through the process of healing," Herman said, "clearly if any of his coaches called he would've returned the phone call."