[Tuck4Bama]

LEXINGTON, Ky. — There was no audible pop, no sudden rush of pain.

Still, Ventrell Jenkins knew something wasn't right.

The University of Kentucky defensive tackle could play in a backup role Saturday when the Wildcats host Eastern Kentucky University at 6 p.m. at Commonwealth Stadium. If he does, it will cap an unlikely comeback from a bizarre — and gradual — shoulder injury.

"I felt it a little bit during the season last year, especially during the Vanderbilt game," said Jenkins, a 6-foot-2, 285-pound junior. "It just got worse and worse and worse until it got to the point where I just couldn't play on it."

But Jenkins never could pinpoint when he'd injured the shoulder.

That's because the injury had been developing most of his life.

Coach Rich Brooks described Jenkins' condition as a "growth plate birth defect that never came together." Where Jenkins' shoulder blade meets the clavicle, Brooks said, there was

Jenkins wants to shoulder a load