Cyclone defensive end Kevin DeRonde has six screws holding together his left fibula.

Cyclone linebacker Chris Whitaker’s left tibia has been replaced by a steel rod and two more screws.

And linebacker Justin Eilers’ meals consists of protein shakes after recently fracturing his jaw.

All three sustained these injuries during spring football practice.

“That’s the life we live in the game of football. Stuff happens,” Whitaker said. “There’s no one to blame.”

“It’s kind of been a blessing in disguise,” DeRonde said. “I’ve got to help with the young guys.”

When DeRonde isn’t helping young defensive ends with pass rushes, he and Whitaker “heckle the offense,” DeRonde said.

“It’s fun,” he added Monday night as his casted leg rested on two stacked pillows on his couch.

Whitaker’s leg was propped up on two pillows on his bed Tuesday night.

“It was an option play right,” Whitaker said, describing the play during scrimmage two Saturdays ago. “So, I start right.”

A tight end attempted to cut-block Whitaker. (A cut-block is where an offensive linemen aims for the legs of a defender and then continues to roll his body through.)

Whitaker hurled him.

His right foot hit turf. Before his left could do likewise, the tight end’s rolling body caught it.

“The sun was out,” Whitaker said. It had rained earlier. So Whitaker still had his “wet turf shoes” on – shoes that grip well and give little ground on artificial turf.

The turf had dried by the time his left foot hit it.

The tight end’s body continued to roll.

“It was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever experienced in my life,” Whitaker said.

“I heard it pop,” DeRonde says of his leg-break two weeks ago Wednesday. “I was freaking out.”

DeRonde’s injury also happened as a result of rolling football players.

“We were down by the goal line. First team O versus first team D,” DeRonde said.

He was engaged with a tight end while a tackle was made behind him.

The pile simply continued to roll through his leg.

“Luckily, I had my knee brace on because it saved my knee,” DeRonde said. “I started crawling and the trainer’s like `Just lay down.'”

“It’s been a humbling experience,” he added.

“It was just a freak accident,” Whitaker said of his.

“How often does that happen?” Eilers said, describing his fractured jaw.

It was last Wednesday during a scrimmage at the Rec.

Eilers and other linebackers were instructed to blitz. He did.

The offensive lineman (either Marcel Howard or Bob Montgomery, he’s not sure) collided with Eilers’ bottom ring of his face mask.

The jolt unbuckled it. “It was dangling,” Eilers said.

As he fought through the block, the whole helmet fell off. “Play’s still going,” Eilers said. “So you gotta keep goin’.”

He met running back Ennis Haywood in the back field. “Ennis just ducked his head. I put my head down,” Eilers said.

Haywood’s helmet caught Eilers’ right jaw about halfway up from the chin. “I felt one of my teeth loose,” Eilers said.

But he did nothing about it until the next morning when he found blood under his tongue.

So an oral surgeon “had wires and stuff put in my bottom jaw,” Eilers said.

In two weeks, Eilers can eat solid food. In four, he’s as healthy as before.

DeRonde’s cast comes off next Tuesday. Rehab and a walking cast follows.

He hopes to be walking by finals week and running by mid-June.

Whitaker’s cast is off next Saturday. Then he too moves to the walking cast and rehab. He hopes to begin running by July.

“I plan on being back by two-a-days,” Whitaker said.

And none believe they will be tentative during two-a-days.

“If you’re worried about getting hurt, then you’re not going to be able to go 110 percent,” DeRonde said. “Why hold back?”

“You gotta be aggressive to play this game,” Whitaker said. “I don’t like to be kicked around. I liked to do the kickin’.”

But before any of that can happen, all three must bide their time.

And for DeRonde and Whitaker, this means adjusting to life with crutches.

Both have been given handicap parking spaces, but, “I just start sweating because it’s so hot in those buildings,” DeRonde said.

“He’s parking in the wrong spots,” Whitaker said. “I’m parking right next to the door.”