{"id":462273,"date":"2026-02-08T19:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T19:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/462273\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T19:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T19:08:10","slug":"folarin-orimolade-updates-achilles-injury-wants-calgary-stampeders-to-win-home-grey-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/462273\/","title":{"rendered":"Folarin Orimolade updates Achilles injury, wants Calgary Stampeders to win home Grey Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo: Leah Hennel\/CFL.ca<\/p>\n

Folarin Orimolade was unable to finish the 2025 CFL season after he suffered a torn Achilles in late September. He recently provided an update on his recovery, saying he\u2019s unsure if he\u2019ll be ready for the start of training camp on May 10<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know (if I\u2019ll be ready for training camp),\u201d Orimolade told\u00a0Stamps TV<\/a> from his offseason home in Arizona. \u201cI\u2019m at 20 weeks (since the injury), so I think I am where I\u2019m supposed to be. Hopefully (I\u2019ll be back) by camp, but not trying to rush it too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c(The rehab process is) not complicated. You need to be able to be strong and you need to be able to move quickly. I can\u2019t move quickly yet, so I need to be sure I do both.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old made 19 defensive tackles and four sacks over 12 regular-season starts with the Stampeders in 2025, his first year back in the city where he started his CFL career. Orimolade left for the Toronto Argonauts as a free agent in 2023, though Calgary reacquired him last offseason in a trade that sent Cameron Judge to the Double Blue.<\/p>\n

The difference in Calgary\u2019s defence after Orimolade suffered his injury was palpable. The unit allowed only 19.1 offensive points and 365.1 net yards per game with him at defensive end, then 28.5 points and 387.2 net yards per game after he was hurt.<\/p>\n

The defence\u2019s negative trend continued into the playoffs as the Stampeders suffered a 33-30 loss to the B.C. Lions in the West Semi-Final.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Not being able to play in the playoffs) was the toughest part about (the injury). To be honest, I wasn\u2019t really worried about the rehab. I did a quad tear (in 2019) and a quad tear is much worse, unfortunately. I feel like I came back pretty well from it, so I wasn\u2019t worried so much about the injury itself,\u201d said Orimolade.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt like we were so close (to winning a Grey Cup in 2025). I feel like if I was there (in the playoffs) we would have been closer, so that was the hard part \u2014 knowing that you can\u2019t do anything really about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The native of Washington, D.C. didn\u2019t see the year as a complete write-off, pleased to see the Stampeders shake-off negative predictions and get back to the playoffs after a 6-12 season in 2023 and 5-12-1 season in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest positive was that we were a team that was told by various people slash media outlets that were going to be no good and we saw \u2014 at least, especially in the beginning \u2014 a team that was hungry, come together, and say, \u2018We don\u2019t really care about the outside noise,’\u201d said Orimolade.<\/p>\n

\u201c(We were just focusing on) how we get better every day and be the best in our minds, essentially, so I really appreciated having younger guys, veteran guys all coming together and saying, \u2018That\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do,\u2019 and doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Calgary lost Jaylon Hutchings, Jacob Roberts, and Damien Alford to the NFL earlier this offseason, though they haven\u2019t lost any big names to CFL free agency. Canadian receiver Dejon Brissett agreed to terms on a two-year contract<\/a> after a breakout season with the Argonauts, while Devodric Bynum<\/a> and Deonta McMahon<\/a> will also join the team.<\/p>\n

\u201cFree agency, I actually pay attention to it quite a bit. I think it\u2019s pretty fun. That\u2019s been on my mind, like, \u2018OK, these are the people I\u2019m going to be going against on different (teams).\u2019 It\u2019s going to be weird, a bit different, but it\u2019s going to be really cool to go against (those guys), so I look at it all around the league,\u201d said Orimolade.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I look for us, like the people that we get, if they make us a much better team. We were a good team last year, and I liked how we were able to sign most everybody \u2014 unless they went to the NFL, we were able to retain our players, so we were able to return a core and they get to know each other over time, and they have these prior relationships, but I think it just makes them a more cohesive unit going into the next season, which I believe bodes well for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Grey Cup will be played at McMahon Stadium in Calgary this November, marking the first time since 2019 that the venue has hosted the CFL\u2019s championship game. Orimolade has won two Grey Cups \u2014 one as a rookie in 2018, then another with Toronto in 2024.<\/p>\n

The five-foot-eleven, 240-pound defender wants to win another one and become the first-ever Stampeders team to do so at home in the process..<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel hungry every year, but I will say that it\u2019s pretty cool to be able to win the Grey Cup in your own backyard. I can\u2019t think of many teams that have done that. I can imagine after you win the Grey Cup, you go party in that city, then you go back to your city and party, too, but it\u2019d be cool to not have to go anywhere \u2014 we know exactly where we\u2019re going right after. That\u2019d be cool and all the festivities will happen quicker because you don\u2019t have to worry about going back and stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fans deserve it, too. We haven\u2019t been in the game as an organization since 2018, so it would mean a lot to do it in Calgary for the fans. I think it would be unique for the guys. This is a team that I believe deserves to win. I don\u2019t think many people on the team have won a Grey Cup up here and I think the team, honestly, just even for them, I just want them to be able to have that opportunity. I think it\u2019s one of those games in Canada where it makes you feel like, \u2018Whoa, this is a big deal,\u2019 and having that feeling would be amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Leah Hennel\/CFL.ca Folarin Orimolade was unable to finish the 2025 CFL season after he suffered a torn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,104562,901,49,2798,48,521,522,520,188916,68627,5718,188917,73167,82,55630,166838,2856],"class_list":["post-462273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-achilles","tag-alberta","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-folarin","tag-grey-cup","tag-injury","tag-orimolade","tag-rehab","tag-sports","tag-stampeders","tag-stamps","tag-surgery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}