‘It looked like a triage in there’: Rider hit with stomach flu in banjo bowl blowout – 3DownNation

For Saskatchewan Roughriders fans, the team’s 54-20 win over rival Winnipeg Blue Bombers during Saturday’s Banjo Bowl was a nightmare from hell.

This result did nothing to stop the horror that unfolded behind closed doors in the drivers’ dressing room.

“It started with us going into the locker room and it looked like triage in there,” quarterback Cody Fajardo told Regina media after the game. “The crowd of people who were sick, vomited, and came out both ends; it was pretty ridiculous.”

Just before the warm-up, word broke that the Riders were suspected to have contracted stomach flu, putting several players’ statuses at risk. The impact of the disease on the game was unknown at the time, but as the team left the field exhausted and dehydrated there was no downplaying the devastation caused by the virus.

For head coach Craig Dickenson, the first problems began on Friday evening shortly after dinner. Having just enjoyed a delicious burrito felt something.

“I went home around nine o’clock, I knew something was wrong. So I thought maybe I had something bad and went to the bathroom and threw up,” he recalled on the podium. “But by the time I did that for the fourth and fifth time that night, I knew it was something more than just food poisoning.”

A call to the team’s training staff revealed that he was far from the only rider with gastrointestinal problems. While Dickenson managed to recover somewhat overnight, others weren’t so lucky, including backup quarterback Mason Fine.

“Mason was my roommate and they had to switch my rooms,” Fajardo said. “He was pretty bad and I could see it firsthand and it didn’t look pleasant.”

Fine was the first player officially ruled out for Saturday’s game and the Riders were able to arrange for third-placed Jake Dolegala to fly in as a last-minute substitute. As the situation worsened, other reinforcements were not so lucky.

Team President Craig Reynolds was recruited to drive defenseman Blace Brown and offensive lineman Diego Alatorre-Montoya in his personal vehicle from Regina to Winnipeg for almost six hours. The group arrived at the stadium late, reportedly nine minutes after kick-off, but escaped some of the worst situations.

“There were about 20 guys who weren’t comfortable and the bathroom there, there were only two cubicles and it was full for every second of foreplay,” noted Fajardo, drawing a disturbing picture of the dressing room.

Dickenson said about 15 Riders players and seven or eight coaches have contracted the disease. Along with Fine, the team scraped defender Jeremy Clark and full-back James Tuck before kick-off, but other players had to dress to meet roster requirements despite being violently ill.

Four players just couldn’t play from the start, including star receiver Kian Schaffer-Baker, while two others were ruled out at half-time. The offensive line in particular found it difficult to keep up.

“They were in big trouble. They had two or three guys outside and [right tackle] Kooper Richardson was sick the whole time, he threw up on the bus ride and played the whole game,” Dickenson admitted.

“I have a lot of heart for these guys,” said Fajardo, grateful for only being fired four times. “Our entire offensive line was sick and they went out there. They gave them IVs just to get them on the field. We had nothing else to do. There are a lot of people who exploited this game to make us do as well as we did.”

The situation affected the drivers’ game plan from the start. With some players still in the locker room with liquids, Dickenson wasn’t even sure which attacking players would be available to his team at kick-off. Because of this, he decided to defer the coin toss, and the Bombers got off to a hot start on the opening drive that never seemed to resolve.

Defense allowed 415 yards in total attack and 54 points that night, while Fajardo’s group put up a respectable 251 yards given the circumstances. Though he wasn’t among those making heavy use of IG Field’s limited restroom facilities, the quarterback believes his game was marred by the error.

“I just felt kind of weak out there. My stomach was fine, I wasn’t throwing up or anything but I just didn’t feel like I had enough energy and I know a lot of guys felt the same way,” Fajardo said. “If you saw what the dressing room looked like before kick-off, you would be proud of how this team fought.”

The team believes the virus has already caught on in Regina, as several players who are still at home have reported similar symptoms. The illness is expected to spread through the team in the next 24 to 48 hours and Dickenson is ordering much-needed rest and hydration for his players once they get home ahead of preparations for next Friday’s game against Edmonton .

He writes to sports therapists Ryan Raftis and Trevor Len and team doctor Dr. Mike Nicholls admits that they somehow guided the team through the unprecedented situation.

“They did a great job, were short on staff and stayed up all night trying to take care of all these guys including me with some pills and just some stuff to try and get us through the night to bring,” said Dickenson. “You did a great job and we appreciate that.”