Purdue QB Sindelar played final four games of season with torn ACL
More: Purdue caps 'storybook' season with victory
SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Jeff Brohm’s first response was “no.”
When he was told the extent of Elijah Sindelar’s left knee injury after the Northwestern game, that his starting quarterback, the one who was playing because the other starting quarterback was out for the season, had a torn ACL, Purdue’s first-year coach said Sindelar shouldn’t keep playing.
But Sindelar wanted to give it a try.
The team doctors and athletic training staff figured if Sindelar could wear a brace and keep the knee stable, it could work.
“I was very leery at first, but Elijah wanted to do it and everything went through our trainers and doctor, and he was able to pull it off,” Brohm said. “For somebody to play almost four games with that, three and a half, that’s amazing. I couldn’t be A, prouder of his performance but to perform with that serious of an injury? How many people can do that? It’s less than 1 percent.”
And that’s probably about the amount of people who knew how serious Sindelar’s injury was.
Sindelar injured the knee in the first half against the Wildcats, his first game as the starter with Blough out. Sindelar said earlier this week he told the trainers, “Let’s just get to halftime first and then we’ll check it.”
“Once halftime came and we kind of got a good idea of what it was, it started to relax and things were going on the uphill from there,” Sindelar said before the game.
It’s unclear whether Sindelar actually knew it was a torn ACL then or found that out officially after an MRI, but he never seemed hesitant about playing with the injury.
And he actually played well.
On Wednesday, Sindelar capped a remarkable final stretch by completing 33-of-53 passes for 396 yards and four touchdowns in Purdue’s 38-35 victory over Arizona. He was named the Foster Farms Bowl Offensive MVP.
But in the previous four-plus games since taking over for Blough, he’d completed 60 percent of his passes for 796 yards, eight touchdowns and one interception.
“It’s truly amazing. It is. For a college player to do that and play at that level? It’s impressive,” Brohm said.
Sindelar told a reporter from CNHI after the game he was scheduled to have surgery on Dec. 29 and that he thought the recovery would be typical for an ACL. Usually, that’s at least six months.
Brohm said he’d go at Sindelar’s pace.
“Without question we want to get it fixed, give it a chance to heal and come back and not only function for football but function for life after. We’ll give him all the proper time to do that. Maybe it’s not July. Maybe it’s August. I don’t know. Whatever it takes for him to feel comfortable, we’ll make sure we do,” Brohm said.
It’ll make for an interesting spring without Blough or Sindelar, but, for now, Brohm was just proud of his sophomore’s grit.
“It’s a credit to him, not only did he play well but to play well with that?” Brohm said.
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