Austin Corbett Opens Up About Long Road to Recovery & How Close He is to Returning
Bouncing back from a torn ACL is not easy by any means. It's not only physically challenging but mentally taxing, especially for a professional athlete who is being told he can't go out and do his job.
Carolina Panthers starting right guard Austin Corbett has been battling for the last seven months to after tearing his ACL in the 2022 regular season finale in New Orleans. On Sunday, he opened up about the rehab process detailing where things currently stand and how far he has come.
"It's just crazy how long it truly is," Corbett stated. "You always kind of think when you see ACLs, you're just like alright, it's going to be nine months. But once you start going through it every single day you don't realize just how long it really is and how much it honestly sucks. But we're doing great. It's been really solid. Finally just being able to get back on the field a little bit and do some work, some change of direction stuff, it's coming along. We're adding more every day and seeing how it reacts and just continue to go from there.
"Still talking to doctors. We got another appointment coming up to see what we're doing from there in terms of time-wise. Obviously, got to be smart don't want to rush into anything because it's a long season. Just being a competitor growing up, we were constantly preached to just work harder, try harder. And this is the first time in my life where no matter what I do, I can't push through it. I'm not allowed to. It's just a timing thing. That's kind of been the hardest thing just sitting around I get so bored so fast. Those first couple months being on crutches, being very limited walking around it was just tough. I want to be doing more, but I just can't. It was a mental struggle there and just understanding that it's okay to take it slow."
During the team's offseason workouts in Charlotte, Corbett still had a pretty significant limp to him. Just watching him walk around the practice field, you could tell that it would be very unlikely that he would be ready to go for the season opener. But since then, it's evident that he has made a ton of progress.
Head coach Frank Reich echoed a lot of what Corbett said on Sunday.
"Still optimistic. He's still ahead of schedule, but we're not rushing that. I mean, we're not anticipating him being ready for Week 1. We'll just be patient. He's doing great. If you watched him move around, you'd say he looks like he could play Week 1 but that kind of injury, you go somewhat by the progress that they're making and then to that injury, there's just, it takes what it takes as far as time. And years of history of that injury tell you don't rush even when they're way ahead of schedule, it's still better to be cautious and don't get him in there too soon."
The good thing is that for the most part, Corbett is no longer in pain. Now there may be a sore morning here or there after he puts in a heavy workload the day before, but that's to be expected with an injury like this.
"Strength-wise, it's the best my body has felt in four or five years because I've had this opportunity to reset my body."
I don't think it's all that far-fetched to think that Corbett may open the season on injured reserve, but he still has another month of progress left before that decision has to be made.
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