By LOGAN RIPLEY

In the third straight win for the Golden Knights, versus non-conference opponent Wilmington, junior striker Morgan Burchhardt had to leave the game late in the first half.
In one of the best starts to a season for a Saint Rose women’s soccer player, Burchhardt led her team to three consecutive victories, while she tallied a total of four goals and three assists during that span.
But at the 34 minute mark in Delaware, Burchhardt would be hit for the last time on the season, one that would end her junior year of soccer.
“She was hit multiple times from behind prior to the injury,” said Laurie Darling Gutheil, head coach of the Saint Rose women’s soccer team. “She was being played very physically because she is one of the best strikers in the country and had significant attention drawn to her with being named a pre-season All-American.”
Waiting till the end of the half, Burchhardt proceeded to go an hour to her family member’s practice instead of waiting to go back to Albany after the game. This is where she learned her fate for the rest of the season, and a new journey started, one that entails the hard work of coming back from anterior cruciate ligament, better known as ACL, surgery.
Burchhardt not only suffered a complete ACL tear but also a grade two medial collateral ligament injury, or MCL. This means that though the injury is bad, it can be healed by rest and rehab in a time table of four to six weeks. She didn’t compromise the whole MCL during the injury, as it stayed on the bone despite the tear.
Most ACL injuries are non-contact, caused by cutting or moving the wrong direction, almost considered a fluke injury. But Burchhardt’s was different in the fact it wasn’t caused just by herself.
“So I planted on my left, to pass with my right,” said Burchhardt. “The girl just tackled me really bad from behind, and I heard a bunch of cracks and it twisted, and I went down.”
Like all ACL injuries, it will take time and hard work to fix, something that Dr. Kyle Flik knows much about. Flik is a Medical Director at OrthoNY’s ambulatory surgery center, and is currently the only surgeon in the Capital Region board certified in both Orthopedics and Orthopedic Sports Medicine.
Flik elaborated more on the scale of ACL injuries in sports and the ways to repair them.
“The ACL is not repaired but is rather reconstructed or replaced,” said Flik. “For this we have to use either the patient’s own patellar tendon or hamstring tendon or quadriceps tendon. Using a portion of these tendons, we can re-create a new ligament.”
Therefore the use of the other tendons in the body allows doctors to create a new anterior cruciate ligament.
The process of surgery is quite cutting edge and allows patients to be in and out quickly. Flik also pointed out that they are not going in blind but use an arthroscope, a mini camera, throughout the majority of the operation. Patients can go home the same day in most cases, and can begin walking a couple days after the surgery, but it differentiates between patients.
The real battle begins after the surgery, where the time is put in and hours are spent with physical therapist and doctors. Burchhardt will have her surgery on Oct. 14, a date that has surely been on her mind for the past couple weeks.
After surgery she will begin her rehab, working toward her goal of being ready to go at the start of next season.
“The first couple of weeks I’m locked straight. Three months I can run, and five months I can do like cutting and sharper movements,” said Burchhardt. “At six months I’m cleared but I’m still not going to pick up a ball.”
The sixth month puts Burchhardt in April, the end of the women’s spring season. She expects to prepare for next season over the summer, bringing her total recovery time to about 10 months.
The women’s team usually works out together before the season starts in the summer. Doing a workout program called CrossFit, which applies multiple layers of strength, conditioning and mobility workouts. Though Burchhardt will do her normal routine in the summer months, she thinks she will also do a precautionary workout system to strengthen her leg, to make sure she is ready to go.
The physical therapy side to the injury is the nuts and bolts to the whole operation. That is where the patient and the doctors find out if it will be a full recovery or something entirely different.
“The recovery is very intensive with respect to physical therapy. Physical therapy begins with range of motion exercises and reducing of swelling,” according to Flik. “The second phase of therapy focuses on strengthening of the leg. The graft that is placed in the knee is not strong until approximately six months. At that point it is usually safe for the patient to return to sports as long as their strength is adequate.”
Keeping with the program is the motto for patients dealing with this injury, because of the time it takes to fully recover. It will be hard just to see how the body will react after surgery, let alone after therapy.
Burchhardt’s role has changed this year from ones in the past. She is now putting her energy toward her teammates and coaches, knowing that she may not be able to help them out physically but can still give advice.
“She’s still a huge asset to our team even though she’s not physically playing,” said Kailey Egbert, doctor of physical therapy and Saint Rose women’s soccer assistant coach. “That’s what being a leader is about. Leading through it all, even when things aren’t necessarily going your way, or the way you imagined they would go.”
Burchhardt has coached previously so this is not a role that is new to her. She will continue to do her job throughout the season and teach her younger teammates and learn from her coaches.
“She’s handled it like a leader and a captain,” said Egbert. “And I know she will continue to so for the rest of the season and the remainder of her rehabilitation.”
That is why a good supporting system and keeping busy is working for Burchhardt. She plans on using a medical redshirt for the rest of the season. This gives her another year to play soccer but also allows her to earn a master’s of business administration and more exclusively in sports management.
Schooling is the main focus for Burchhardt, but she hasn’t given up hope in her team, and continues to push them to be better everyday.
“We are really expecting a lot of everyone,” said Burchhardt, “but basically I’m just there to support them, coach them a little bit, help out my coach with whatever she needs, things like that.”