EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State hockey player A.J. Sturges released a statement Thursday to media members criticizing the football program’s decision to reinstate Glenn Winston, the sophomore running back who injured him during an off-campus altercation in October.

“In my opinion, the immediate reinstatement of Glenn Winston to the football team reflects very poorly on Michigan State athletics,” Sturges wrote. “This decision has established weak precedent for future athletes involved in violent crimes.”
Sturges said he suffered a fractured skull, bleeding on the brain and had to have five stitches inside his mouth after taking a punch to the side of the head from Winston. Sturges missed the 2008-09 season and said he was forced to drop academic courses because of memory issues and headaches resulting from the injuries.
“This was not a fight, or a disagreement,” Sturges said. “I was in bed in my room and came downstairs after hearing the commotion caused by three cars pulling up filled with screaming and violent people. I was standing in my front yard trying to figure out what was going on when Glenn Winston punched me in the head from the side. I never saw him. I did not have any chance to protect myself at all. Neither did his other victims.
“As a hockey player, I know what a fight is. What happened that night was not a fight. What happened was a violent crime. Pure and simple.”
Associate athletics director John Lewandowski said the school had no comment beyond the statements football coach Mark Dantonio and athletics director Mark Hollis made this week.