Dana Duckworth Provides Injury Updates on Luisa Blanco

The 2021 SEC Gymnast of the Year suffered an ankle injury at this year's SEC Championship meet.

After a scary-looking injury on the final beam routine at the SEC Championships left Luisa Blanco on the mat for several minutes being attended to by trainers. 

With the ankle injury, Alabama head coach Dana Duckworth thinks Blanco could be back in one rotation when the Crimson Tide competes at the NCAA Regional Meet in Seattle Thursday afternoon.

"Luisa is doing better," Duckworth said. "Her mobility is a lot better. We expect to use her on bars this weekend. And again, we're not rushing, and it's really all about how she recovers. We did have 17 hours of travel, so she did have the ankles swell somewhat. But after great medical care and getting off our feet and such, I think she's doing a good job."

Duckworth said the team went to a local gym in Seattle on Wednesday to get a little work in, and it was beneficial for all the girls, but especially Luisa as Duckworth was able to observe her movement patterns. 

Alabama plans to just use her in the bars lineup this weekend in Seattle and could hopefully add her back into more rotations if the team is to advance to the NCAA Championship meet in Fort Worth. The Crimson Tide first has to finish in the top two of Thursday's meet to advance to the regional finals on Saturday where they would again have to finish in the top two to advance to nationals. 

"Obviously if Luisa is only doing bars, she has been contributing on those three other events," Duckworth said. "And we're very blessed to have Shania [Adams], Mati [Waligora] and Griffin [James] right there to step in on a variety of events. And so we will warm up everyone tomorrow, and we will make the best decision with hopefully the least amount of change."

Blanco normally competes in the all-around, but competed in at least bars and beam in every meet this season. Fifth year senior Lexi Graber said Blanco is someone that has always been a rock for this team.

"Right now her role's changed, and other people's roles have changled to step in," Graber said. "And we depend on those people just as much as we depend on Luisa. We know she's dying to be back in there, but she's being a great teammate. And she'll do what she needs to do and she'll recover and we'll have her back."

Alabama Athletics

Alabama Athletics

Alabama Athletics

Alabama Athletics

This story will be updated with video.