Rawleigh Williams has full movement after being carted off

Paramedics tend to Arkansas running back Rawleigh Williams during a practice Saturday, April 29, 2017, at Walker Pavilion in Fayetteville. Williams was injured during the Razorbacks' final spring practice.

— Sosa Agim and Rawleigh Williams briefly collided during a drill Saturday, a hit that sent Williams spinning to the ground with a stinger early in Arkansas’ final spring practice.

“I heard him when he fell and I just heard, ‘I can’t move,’” Agim said. “It most definitely scared me, because you know his history.”


Practice was halted while Williams was carted off the field on a stretcher and taken to a hospital for precautionary reasons. He moved his arms and legs before being loaded onto the cart.

But the scene was scary, especially given Williams’ history. The junior running back suffered a season-ending neck injury against Auburn midway through his freshman season in 2015, which put his playing career in doubt. He recovered from it, coming back to run for 1,360 yards and 12 touchdowns last season.

Arkansas coach Bret Bielema declined to go into details about Saturday’s injury.

“Just obviously a huge scare out there, with his history and everything that goes into it," Bielema said. “(It) seems to be something unrelated. I don’t want to speak out of turn, so we’ll wait until we get confirmation.

“Everything has been very, very positive so far, everything I’ve been informed of. Before he left the field, he had full movement of everything out there. Just a blessing to hopefully keep him moving in the right direction."

Bielema also didn’t want to delve into what, if any, conversations may lie ahead about if and when Williams plays football again.

“I would hate to speculate,” Bielema said. “All I’m worried about is his health right now and then we’ll cross that next bridge when it comes.”

A positive sign was Williams being in good spirits in the moments shortly after the injury.

“He kept saying, ‘This is embarrassing,’ because he wanted to walk and they wouldn’t let him walk because they were just being overly cautious,” Bielema said. “ … He was kind of joking around.”

Williams’ parents and his younger brother and sister were in attendance. Arkansas is recruiting his younger brother, Brian, one of the nation’s top prospects in the class of 2019. His family members were, understandably, shaken by the injury.

“(She was) emotional, as a mom would be,” Bielema said. “Actually, the whole family was in there today. They were all in my office maybe an hour before practice. Not just discussing Rawleigh, but there’s also a little one that’s a pretty good player as well. So we were having a conversation about the future.”

Offensive coordinator Dan Enos gathered the rest of the team at midfield, where they took a knee while Williams was being tended to. The injury put a damper on the remainder of practice for obvious reasons, but Williams’ teammates were relieved to hear it wasn’t as serious in nature as his previous injury.

“It hit us pretty hard,” said sophomore running back Devwah Whaley, Williams’ backup. “… Freak accidents happen. All we could do was continue to practice and get better. I’ve heard that he’s doing fine and he’ll be OK. It was a big relief. I’m going to give him a call and a text later and maybe go see him just to see how he’s doing.”

“I believe it took the rest of the team a while to get back in the groove of practice when you just seen one of your players (get hurt) and you know his history of injuries,” Agim said. “So when you see that, it takes you back and emotionally hits you. It took me a while, surely, to get back.

“In a time like that you’ve just got to pray. I just prayed for him. I’m going to keep praying for him. They said he was moving and everything, so hopefully he’s looking up.”