North Carolina State University Athletics
Levi Watkins Continues Strong Recovery From Knee Injury
7/11/2002 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
July 11, 2002
By Tony Haynes
Raleigh, N.C.-When members of the NC State men's basketball team report for individual skill sessions with the coaching staff in late August, they'll likely be joined by a fallen teammate whose recovery from a torn ACL is right on schedule.
Less than seven months removed from reconstructive knee surgery, Levi Watkins has been cleared to do just about everything except play competitive basketball at this time. But that too could change following a checkup with team orthopedic surgeon Bob Wyker early next month.
"Levi is doing fantastic," said Charlie Rozanski, NC State's Director of Sports Medicine. "He's six months-plus from his surgery and his range of motion and functional strength have really improved dramatically. He's about 15 percent from full strength in that leg."
At the time his freshman season was cut short in the second half of the ACC opener against Maryland last December 30th, Watkins was emerging as one of the Wolfpack's most versatile players. Strong and athletic, the 6-7 forward had already shown that he was capable of playing effective defense both inside and on the perimeter. Watkins' offense was also coming around in late December. In the end, however, he was forced to sit on the sidelines while NC State surged to its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 11 years.
Although the recovery from ACL surgery is often slow and tedious, signs are positive that Watkins will be at full strength by the time the Wolfpack begins official preseason practices in mid-October.
"There's no question that he has worked as hard as anybody we've ever had in his rehab. He's done everything we've asked," Rozanski said. "We're fortunate because the calendar is with us so we can take it slow and make sure that he fully recovers. The only things that we're restricting him from right now are one-on-one play and five-on-five play. It's just so that the environment that he's in is still controlled."
The short-term goal is to make sure Watkins is ready for individual skill workouts, which will begin soon after the players return to campus for the start of fall classes in late August.
"We anticipate that he'll be ready for skill sessions," Rozanski said. "Dr. Bob Wyker, who did the surgery, will sit down with him the first of August as we did the first of July. We'll just do some strength testing on him and some functional testing at that time. And we'll do some measurements of the girth of his leg compared to the other leg. Then based on the information we receive, Dr. Wyker will decide where we go from there."
