Transcript
Emily Neff.
JENNIFER NEFF (EMILY'S MOM):
Emily is a great kid. She enjoys sports. She's been playing sports since she was six years old.
EMILY NEFF:
I was playing basketball. I jumped and landed wrong and tore my ACL.
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JENNIFER NEFF:
It was a torn ACL. I think going in, we knew that that's probably what the problem was, but just knowing what you hear about, that it's a long recovery. Is she going to be able to come back and play sports again?
RYAN INGLEY (ATHLETIC TRAINER):
The most important thing I think is making sure they're comfortable with what we're doing. Every athletic trainer is going to feel that way. We want to make sure that they're safe ultimately, and that's why we're there.
EMILY NEFF:
They said it was going to be six to eight months recovery, and my mindset was well, I'm going to get back in six months.
RYAN INGLEY:
Motivation I think is very important. It's a very tedious process as you rehab an injury because you need to basically rebuild a foundation.
EMILY NEFF:
There were times in the training when it was really hard, in the back of my head I knew what I was working for, and I knew that the end payoff would be worth it, so I just pushed through it.
RYAN INGLEY:
As you get weeks, months out making sure that she can get her full range of motion back, get her full extension back, she's got to have that confidence or else she's not going to be able to play her game.
JENNIFER NEFF:
She was right around that six-month mark when they cleared her. That allowed her to come back to the playing field for soccer.
I was really nervous, honestly, just to make sure I wasn't going to do anything to get hurt again, but I knew I was strong enough physically, and my doctors wouldn't put me back out there if they didn't know I can fully do it.
JENNIFER NEFF:
She was able to play in the regional semifinal game, and she scored three goals in that game, known as a hat-trick in soccer, and that was just awesome. This hasn't slowed her down. She's become stronger, I believe, because of the injury and come out further ahead had it not happened.
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