Texas QB Quinn Ewers’ abdominal injury is common among baseball players and the only solution is rest

Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle has more than 40 players starting fall practice but only 34 can be on the spring roster. A few spots are safe, but everybody must earn it.

“As we saw with Quinn (Ewers), who I just saw at lunch, anything can happen,” Schlossnagle said Tuesday about the injured Texas starting quarterback. “So you have to be ready to handle the ups and downs of the season.”

Forget about the new Longhorns at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Is Ewers playing on Saturday against Louisiana-Monroe, coach? Schlossnagle wouldn’t hazard a guess.

“Just in my brief interactions with him and Arch (Manning) both, they are great guys. They love baseball,” Schlossnagle said. “Quinn’s injury is actually, it’s a baseball injury. You know, those things happen a lot in baseball, and unfortunately, whether it be a pitcher or a position player, they’re a challenge to come back from quick, because literally everything you do aggravates it.

“So, we were just talking about that. He’s a great dude.”

Related: AI clocks Texas WR Isaiah Bond with fastest speed in college football and Arch Manning wasn’t too far behind

Here’s some oddball research: the American Journal of Sports Medicine studied 8,136 players who were put on the disabled list from 1991 through 2010. Abdominal strains accounted for roughly 5% of injuries as the cause.

Abdominal strains kept pitchers out an average of 35 days while position players were sidelined 27 days, the study showed.

The Cleveland Clinic reports that abdominal strains re common in football and tennis players and the injury — something akin to a pulled stomach muscle — is often a sign of overuse.

Oblique muscles help your body rotate left and right. Anyone who is active with side-to-side movements can have this type of problem, according to the Cleveland Clinic.

The only real treatment from overuse? Rest.

That’s why it’s unlikely Texas football coach Steve Sarkisian will send Ewers into the fray this weekend against Monroe, a 45-point underdog. There’s simply no reason to expose Ewers to further damage with the SEC opener against Mississippi State one week later. Other major games against Oklahoma and Georgia are lined up in October.

Officially, Ewers is questionable for Saturday’s game, Sarkisian said Monday, and the coach would not totally rule the quarterback out.

Starting next week with SEC play, Texas will have to formally designate which players are in or out according to the league’s new injury policy. Similar to NFL injury reports, SEC teams will issue late-week injury reports for transparency — and to ward off improprieties with sports betting.

Sarkisian is expected to give an update on Ewers either Wednesday during the SEC coaches teleconference or Thursday during his regular late-week visit with Texas reporters.