Clemson linebacker signee Bryton Constantin underwent successful surgery earlier this month for the knee injury he suffered while playing basketball for his high school team in late February.
On Senior Night, Constantin landed awkwardly after a dunk attempt and felt a pop in his knee. An MRI later revealed a torn ACL and torn meniscus.
TCI caught up with the talented athlete from University High in Baton Rouge, La., to get an update on his injury and find out how his rehab is going.
“I’m doing well. The surgery went good,” he said. “The doctor said it went really well. He repaired my ACL and he repaired my meniscus, so that’s what is going to prolong my rehab a little bit is that repaired meniscus. But everything is going real well. I started rehab. I’m already back with my physical trainer every day just working out, trying to stay in shape.”
Constantin started rehabbing last week. He is in a knee brace and will be on crutches for a few more weeks.
“The rehab process is going good,” he said. “I’ve actually been doing really well in there. They told me that I’ve been able to bend it further than they expected me to, move it real well. I just do a lot of stem (cell) treatment, I do a lot of icing, I do a lot of NormaTec (Recovery), the pressure on my knee. I do leg raises with leg weights and everything like that just to strengthen my quads and get that knee and that ACL moving again.”
The rehab process for a typical ACL injury can take up to six months or more, though Constantin expects his timetable for full recovery to be a bit longer because he had to get the meniscus repaired as well.
He will enroll at Clemson on June 23 and hopes to be able to begin jogging around that time.
“That would be about five months, and at about five months I should be jogging and doing everything,” he said. “They said I have a chance of being 100 percent before the season, but I’m going to necessarily push that and risk getting injured again.”
Constantin is embracing the possibility of redshirting as a freshman during the 2019 season and understands that might be in his best interest.
“A lot of people don’t look at it that way, but I’m definitely going to embrace it and realize that I’ll still have four years to play after that,” he said.
“It’s just a blessing in disguise,” Constain continued. “Like I said, I’ll be able to hopefully redshirt and then just have four more years.”
Constantin is looking at the glass half-full and confident he will come back stronger than ever.
“I’m not even really worried about the injury because I know it’s really just going to help me get bigger and faster and stronger over the whole rehab process,” he said. “They said I could be back before the season, but they don’t really know. It’s really up to me and how good I do with my rehab.”
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney reached out to Constantin shortly after he sustained the injury to show his support.
“A few days after I hurt my knee and figured out that it was a torn ACL, I spoke with him, and he was just backing me up,” Constantin said. “He was saying everything happens for a reason, just telling me they have my back. I have all the support in the world coming from them. He knows it’s a tough time for me, but told me to stay positive and just stay in the gym and just stay active.”
Constantin, a four-star prospect, was ranked as a top-100 national player in the 2019 recruiting class according to Rivals. He helped lead University High to state championships in 2017 and 2018 and played in the Under Armour All-America Game following his senior season.
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