Albert Lea senior completes rehab, treatment for torn ACL

Nearly one year ago, Albert Lea High School senior Brendan Fredrickson experienced an injury most people will never know the pain of.

During a basketball practice on Dec. 13, 2016, Fredrickson was participating in a normal drill when he made a sudden stop and instantly felt a terrible pain in his knee.

“I remember hearing a pop,” Fredrickson said. “I remember I was laying on my back trying to straighten my leg and whenever I got close to fully straight, it hurt — a lot. I’ve sprained my ankles a few times before, but I knew this time I needed to go to the hospital.”

Fredrickson was diagnosed with a torn Anterior Cruciate Ligament, more commonly referred to as an ACL. After months of physical rehab and treatment, he would return to the court in time for the start of the 2017 season.

“The first few weeks of rehab was basically just regaining my range of motion and getting back to normal functioning on a daily basis,” he said. “Then I moved on to hopping on one foot, lunges and using exercise bands. Eventually I was able to test out of the program.”

According to Fredrickson, the hardest part about his road to recovery was sticking to the rehab routine. He said it would have been so easy to just give up, but he didn’t. He kept working and training to get where he is now.

He said it wasn’t really until he was fully cleared to play in August that he started to feel more confident about using his knee again. Although the physical aspect of the injury has basically fully healed, there is a mental aspect that Fredrickson still struggles with from time to time.

“When I first started rehab I couldn’t wait to get back here and play,” he said. “Now, there’s just a mental wall that I hit and it’s like, ‘Been there, done that and I don’t want to go through that again.’”

Fredrickson said there are still moments when he can feel things move and make noises in his knee. He said it gets red and inflamed whenever he goes through a strenuous workout with a lot of running or squatting.

He offered up some advice for any athletes that may find themselves in the same situation he was in.

“Just do what (the therapists) tell you,” he said. “As long as you do what they tell you and stick to the routines, everything is going to turn out all right.”

Brendan Fredrickson

Age: 17

Address: Albert Lea

Livelihood: Student at Albert Lea High School

Family: mom, Kelley; dad, Scott

Interesting fact: Fredrickson is a car enthusiast. Along with his grandfather, he traveled the Midwest this summer as part of the Hot Rod Power Tour in his grandfather’s Corvette.