Gruber’s injury affects his senior year

  It was Connor Grubers’ homecoming game for soccer against Brandywine. It was pretty early in the game and then the unthinkable happened. Connor was tracking someone down on defense, and when he tried to stop and change directions his foot slipped on the turf. When he twisted, he heard a loud “POP” from his knee.

     Gruber states, “It was one of the most painful things that I have ever felt before.”

     Connor just stopped to the ground, and he knew something was wrong right away. After he got off the field, he just sat there in disbelief of what just happened. He did not know what to do or say. 

     As this was happening, Connor shared, “Soccer is my favorite sport, and it’s my senior year and this might be all over. The emotions were hitting me hard too.” 

     When he finally got to the trainer’s room with trainer Megan, who was the one that helped him a lot through this process, she was testing his knee and was trying to see what the injury was. People were coming to see if he was okay, and the whole thing was so overwhelming and he just wanted to break down. 

     Trainer Megan finally said that it was most likely a partial torn ACL. Which was a bit of relief so he thought that he would not be out for that long of a time but he still could not believe it. All of Connor’s friends came and drove him home and stayed with him because he was not in a good place. 

     Connor finally went to get an MRI done to see how bad it was. Once he got the result back, he did not know what to say. He had a complete tear of his ACL. His whole senior year was ruined. The recovery time was 6-9 months. He knew he was not going to be able to finish out his soccer season, play basketball, or baseball. It was all over for him. This was the worst news he has ever gotten before. 

     Connor had to get surgery and for the next couple days after that were the worst days of his life. “Literal Hell.” Gruber is currently four months in since surgery and he is doing very well. He has been walking, jogging a little, and getting some of his strength back. He is done with therapy which was very difficult, but he got through it. 

     Connor is very proud of himself from how far he came from. This was a huge obstacle and set back in his life, but he is working his hardest to get through it. Gruber couldn’t have done it without the help of his friends, family, coaches, trainers, teachers, and his therapists. 

     Connor states, “This was the worst injury I ever experienced and it didn’t just effect sports. It really messed me mentally and it affected school and my friends. It was really hard.”

     This injury did not affect where Connor is going for college, but it did affect whether or not he was playing soccer in college. Gruber has decided that he is not going to play soccer in college.