Walendy Has Odd Infection

Already needing to find a new tailback, UCLA opens practice today facing the possibility it will be thin at fullback for the season opener unless Craig Walendy recovers from a mysterious infection.

Coach Bob Toledo said Friday that the senior who started seven of the final eight games last season could miss the first 10 days of workouts, even as Walendy dismisses any timetable that puts his availability for the Sept. 12 contest against Texas in doubt. Either way, junior Durell Price will practice for now as the No. 1 fullback.

“I’d say we have to wait and see,” Toledo said of Walendy’s chances of making it back to face the Longhorns. “He thinks he’ll be back quicker than 10 days. The doctors don’t.”

Said Walendy: “That’s the training staff. They’ve got to be careful about something like this.”

Even if no one is exactly sure what this is. Walendy said doctors think he had an allergic reaction to an insect bite, even though he doesn’t remember any such contact. It started as a bump on the left biceps, then spread to both arms until he had five sores, took antibiotics and spent a few days in the hospital two weeks ago.