ALEX SMITH Staff Writer

Nic Englert, a sophomore men’s soccer player, has suffered season ending injuries in consecutive.

We wrote a story about him a few weeks ago; however, he had not officially been diagnosed yet.

“When I went into the training room, I could tell almost immediately that I was about to get bad news,” he said. “There was a lot of tension in the room. I was prepared for what they told me, that I had torn my ACL, and I was ready to start working on recovery.”

Englert had ACL repair surgery and is currently about a month in on his recovery. He says that the 48 hours after the surgery really weren’t that bad. He is currently on crutches and hopes to be off of those in the next month. He is also in a brace that he only takes off for physical therapy.

“It’s nice when I am in the training room doing physical therapy because it’s the only time that I can take my brace off,” he said. “I have had minimal pain with the procedure and recovery process so far.”

Englert hopes that he will be able to start training full speed for the upcoming season by the end of summer.

“Right now, I am just trying to do everything I can to rehab my knee. I am bummed about not being able to play this season, but I am thankful to have been able to cheer my team on,” said Englert. The most frustrating part may be not being able to keep up with the guys all the time.

“When we won in overtime against Ferrum, all of the guys stormed the field,” he recalled. “Unfortunately it was on the other side of the field. I tried to hurry over, but by that time they were already running back to the bench.”

While the crutches slow him down sometimes, the surgery didn’t. “I scheduled my surgery over Fall break, so my time out of school really wasn’t that bad,” he said. “Just getting up and getting to class can be hard work, but so far it has worked out fine.”

So, now Englert looks to season three to be his year. He will hopefully begin training come May, and until then will be working with the PC athletic training staff for rehab.