MN Thunder offseason news

I ran into Nate Knox a couple of weeks ago at a MIAC game. Nathan played his college soccer at Macalster and then went on to play for the the Thunder. In recent years, Nate has played for Seattle and then moved onto Atlanta. In August of this year Nathan was traded back to the Thunder in exchange for Aaron Paye.

Nate played well for the Thunder in their new 3-5-2 formation under Donny Gramenz. In the return game of the home and away series, the Thunders first set of playoff game in 5 years, Knox tore his ACL. Shortly after the incident, he was diagnosed as having a torn ACL and a possible torn MCL. Normally a torn ACL is a 6 month recovery. Add on a torn MCL and you have at least another 3 months of rehab. 

Knox had to wait several weeks before the swelling went down to have surgery and on October 16th he had that surgery. I was in contact with Nathan recently and he told me the surgery went extremly well. On top of that, his doctor told him that his MCL was fine and no addition surgery or rehab would take place because of that. 

Nathan said, “The rehab schedule will just be a straight forward ACL reconstruction rehab and the doctor expects me to be back in 5-6 months.” He went onto say, “I am very happy with the news and with every bit of improvement and good news it makes it easier motivation-wise. I’ve started rehab this week and although it’s painful -pushing myself pass what is comfortable- I enjoy coming out of it (each session) with improved range and strength and feel the benefit later that day. I can bend my knee to almost 90 degrees already and I pretty much have full extension, which is the most important things at this stage. 

For those of you that may not know, when a new ACL is attached, it’s done in such a way as to make the joint extremly tight. The patient must rehab to get flexibility back into the knee to improve his/her range of motion back to normal while strengthening the muscles around it that usually atrophy after the injury. 

Knox added, “For now, I just keep on with the rehab, keep improving the range and building back up the muscles. I know it will be tough at times but I’m confident I will recover fast.”

IMS wishes Nate Knox the best of luck and would love to see him back on the field in May or June and scoring goals again for the Thunder.

~

Another quick note from my friend Bruce Mcguire at DuNord Futbol.  Fan favorite Kevin Friendland will be suiting up for Major League Soccer’s FC Dallas in their reserve game on Sunday vs the Los Angeles Galaxy reserves. 

I ran into Kevin at that same MIAC game as he sat with Nate Knox. Kevin told me he was going home to California for a little R and R before winter training. He was working with Shattuck’s soccer program last winter, but this year he will be working with the Thunder Academy. Sounds as if Kevin will have to wait a little longer before he gets that R and R.