Ernst Brun doesn’t have a name for the illness, he doesn’t know what it’s called. All Brun knows is that the pain is unbearable.

After starting at tight end in Iowa State’s season opener against Northern Iowa on Aug. 31, Brun spent the bulk of the game in the locker room with cramps.

“I just started getting really tired, like play six and I was like, ‘Man, something’s going on?’” said Brun, who started the final 11 games last season and had six touchdowns. “Sure enough I made a block, and my leg started cramping.”

Brun had experienced a full body cramp when he played at Mt. San Antonio, but that was due to dehydration. Against the Panthers in the season opener, Brun said he was hydrated.

The cramping again spread throughout his body on that Saturday.

“In the abs I think it’s the worst. I couldn’t walk, my lower abs were shot. I couldn’t stand up, so I had to lay on my stomach for like 30 minutes,” Brun said. “I lost a lot of weight during that 30 minutes, because I was sweating, I was nervous.

“It’s a bad feeling. You don’t want to feel it.”

Since that game Brun has had blood work, and the results have improved. Brun returned to practice this week and said he’s ready to play in the in-state rivalry game against Iowa on Saturday.

ISU coach Paul Rhoads said the best way to keep Brun on the field Saturday is to limit his reps.

“We’ll get plays out of him,” Rhoads said, noting he felt Brun was sluggish earlier in the week. “With that in mind, I’m aware that we have three pretty good tight ends and we won’t miss anything in our offense with that being the case with [redshirt junior Ben] Boesen and [junior E.J.] Bibbs.”

Boesen and Bibbs combined for three receptions and eight yards in the Cyclones’ first game. There is hope Brun will have the chance to be targeted more Saturday, but if he does miss time, offensive coordinator Courtney Messingham thinks the others can pick up for him.

“The key obviously is getting him on the field. If he’s on the field, he’ll help us,” Messingham said. “Obviously if he is standing over on the sideline it’s hard for him to do much. Fortunately, we have two guys in Ben Boesen and E.J. Bibbs that will fill in and do a nice job if for some reason Ernst can’t go.”

Brun said he will be ready to go and hopes the cramps stay away.

“It scares me, but I just have to go play,” Brun said. “If I’m feeling fine, I have to go play.”