Salem SiMonday, the Northwestern football team’s junior defensive tackle who tore his anterior cruciate ligament April 15 during a spring scrimmage, had successful surgery on his left knee Tuesday.
SiMonday, who started 10 of the Wildcats’ 11 games last season, is expected to return to the field in about six months, meaning he could miss as many as seven games. He will begin rehabilitation for the injury Thursday.
“The surgery went well,” said Tory Aggeler, the head athletics trainer for the Cats. “Salem’s a real tough kid. You couldn’t tell he had surgery other than the fact he was on crutches. He’s handled this very business-like.”
Last season Simon recorded 32 tackles, including five for a loss, and one sack. He was also second on the team in quarterback hurries with seven.
Sophomore Pete Chapman replaced Simon in the starting role for the last week of spring practice and has a good chance to stay there next season, at least until Simon returns.
Simon is already familiar with the rehabilitation process, having torn the ACL in his right leg before summer practices began during his first year at NU.
Simon tore his right ACL at a high school all-star game — but didn’t know it until he arrived at NU. All Simon knew was that his knee was giving out on him from time to time.
Eventually he got the knee checked out and the injury was diagnosed.
This spring, Simon took a direct hit on the outside of his knee, tore his ACL, but got right up for the next play.
After the play, realizing his knee was worse off than he thought, Simon somehow managed to jog off the field.
“That’s typical Salem,” Aggeler said.
Aggeler helped Simon with his rehab as a freshman, and he will be by his side for the next six months, helping to rebuild the strength in Simon’s other knee. Aggeler said it is quite an advantage that Simon has already been through the rehab process.
“Early on the rehab is mental as much as physical, but (Simon) is already past the mental part,” Aggeler said. “The ACL injury has gotten the stigma as the most severe injury because it has one of the longest rehabs. But with his build, his pain tolerance and his girth, (Simon) is a prime candidate for recovery.”
Even though he starts rehab Thursday, Simon will be taking it easy for at least the first six to eight weeks. The ACL surgery is aggressive and very traumatic, causing a lot of bleeding and swelling to the knee.
Simon will have to lay low and make sure he knows how much pressure his ACL graft can take before he is able to go all out. All he will do for a while are motion work and muscle contraction exercises.
“Right now we want to work on decreasing the swelling,” Aggeler said. “We won’t get too aggressive for a couple of months.”
