Meet the Oklahoma State football starter who couldn't walk due to illness two years ago
· Yahoo Sports
STILLWATER — Christian Bodnar didn’t care that he relied on a wooden cane to make up for the shuffle of his right foot. He had to find a way down to the football field.
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Watching his Liberty Flames play against Jacksonville State from the stands of Williams Stadium wasn’t good enough. Bodnar needed to be with his teammates. The academic adviser watching the game from the stands with Bodnar and Bodnar’s grandfather, Todd Bodnar, told Christian not to go down to the field. His coaches didn’t want him to get hurt on the sideline. When that didn’t work, the adviser pleaded with Todd to talk some sense into his grandson.
“Yeah, right,” Todd said. “I’m not going to be able to stop him.”
In 2024, a case of post-infectious encephalitis — when the immune system mistakenly attacks brain tissue days or weeks after a viral illness — hospitalized Bodnar for a week. He was unable to walk and concerns for his thriving football career as a cornerback at Liberty were replaced with concerns for his quality of life. Almost two years later, Bodnar’s career is at its healthiest point as he starts at safety for Oklahoma State in the Big 12. Bodnar will take the field Saturday in OSU's game against Murray State (6 p.m., ESPN+).
Symptoms started on the Monday morning after Bodnar's breakout game, where he earned his first start and ended a 31-24 win against FIU by forcing a sack-fumble. When Bodnar missed a team meeting Monday, his coaches knew something was up.
Bodnar woke up with a migraine and said he felt like gravity was pulling down on the right side of his body. A plastic water bottle in his right hand, he explained, felt like it weighed 15 pounds. Team doctors feared for a stroke. Bodnar drove himself to the hospital. He still thought he’d play in the following Saturday’s game and was concerned about missing the bus to Kennesaw State. By the time Bodnar arrived, hitting the hospital curb as he parked, his symptoms had worsened. Swelling on the left side of his brain caused him to lose function of the right side of his body.
When Todd drove two hours to see his grandson, he was shocked to see him on a hospital bed curled in the fetal position.
“If you would have told me that I would ever see him in that physical state I would have said, there's no way,” Todd said. "He’s dedicated himself to being the best that he can be at playing football. Seeing him like that was crazy.”
Doctors conducted a painful spinal tap to diagnose what was wrong and Bodnar didn’t even appear to know it was happening. At that point, the fear wasn’t for Bodnar’s football career. It was fear for his quality of life. That fear was reinforced one night when the monitors in the hospital room started beeping. The stress on Bodnar's body caused atrial fibrillation, where his heart started beating chaotically.
A CT scan revealed the swelling in Bodnar’s brain and heavy doses of prednisone reduced some of it. On day three in the hospital, Bodnar started to show improvement. Lying on his back in a gown, Bodnar slowly balled the fingers on his right hand and used his entire shoulder to throw a punch.
“It was ugly,” Todd said. “Yeah, it was really ugly. But he was doing it, and you could see the joy in his face with the fact that he could lift his arm up and kind of throw his fist out there. He knew in his head that he was getting better and that there was going to be light at the end of the tunnel for him.”
On day four, doubt about returning to play football flashed across Bodnar’s mind when his physical therapist had to pick up his leg to take a step. Bodnar pushed the boundaries of his physical therapy. He walked in the hospital halls the day before he was supposed to and climbed out of bed to meet his physical therapists.
“That’s what makes him a great football player, that’s what makes him a great DB,” Liberty cornerbacks coach Dino Waites said. “You tell him he can’t do something and I’m pretty sure he’ll say watch and see. He’s a believer, man.”
Todd never doubted his grandson would return to play football.
“No. He was determined to play,” Todd said. “I mean, that's the love of his life.”
Bodnar still remembers the moment he knew he’d play football again.
“I had got the catheter to go use the bathroom in the bed off so that I could go use the actual bathroom,” Bodnar said. “So right then and there I knew that I was going to be OK.”
At the Jacksonville State game where Bodnar made his return to the sideline, a teammate reached out for a high-five and Bodnar missed the hand. He was still recovering his motor skills.
Waites remembers the moment he saw Bodnar join the team on the sideline during the game.
“That just lets you know what kind of person you got that’s fighting with you,” Waites said. “Definitely motivated you as a person to not make excuses to figure out a way to keep going but definitely seeing him come down did my heart good because I just wanted him to be OK. And I knew he was going to be OK.”
Liberty shut Bodnar down for the remainder of the season. Because the illness was not related to football, Bodnar felt comfortable returning to practice. Bodnar practiced with other players recovering from injury. A few times, Bodnar tried to sneak into the full practice before getting discovered.
Bodnar worked double the individual drills in an effort to regain his muscle memory. He’s a player Waites said he had to pull back, not push. Waites said there were times in practice he thought to himself the “old” Christian would have made that play. By the time the 2025 season started, Bodnar was back to full speed. He started 10 games and won the AP’s Comeback Player of the Year award.
“He couldn’t walk, so forget running he was trying to learn how to walk,” Waites said. “It’s a wild deal. It’s really a miracle when you see him doing what he’s doing now.”
Examples of teammates at Liberty entering the transfer portal and jumping to the power conference level encouraged Bodnar to make a jump. Oklahoma State defensive coordinator Skyler Cassity has connections with Liberty’s former defensive coordinator and safeties coach Aaron Fierbaugh. They gave him a ringing endorsement.
“When he was in the portal and available I called those guys and they spoke so highly of him,” Cassity said. “They were like, ‘It’s the craziest story in the world but if you can get that kid to come join your program, he’s one you want to get.'”
Bodnar has no choice but to take the field a newfound gratitude.
“Every day is joyful for me to even be out here playing football, like, I can't take nothing for granted,” Bodnar said. “It can be hard sometimes. Even as a football player, like I got to remind myself every day this is something that I'm blessed to do. This is a great sport. It's a beautiful sport, and I love the fact that I get to play it.”
OSU vs. Murray State
KICKOFF: 6 p.m. Saturday at Boone Pickens Stadium in Stillwater (ESPN+)
Ben Hutchens covers OSU athletics for The Oklahoman. Have a story idea for Ben? He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @ben_hutchens_. Sign up for OSU Sports Minute newsletter to access more coverage of the Cowboys and Cowgirls. Support Ben's work and that of other Oklahoman journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today at subscribe.oklahoman.com.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Meet the Oklahoma State football starter who couldn't walk due to illness two years ago