Georgia football: positive insight on Zamir White’s ACL recovery

2018 running back signee Zamir White missed out on his true freshman Georgia football season because of a torn ACL. His second in 12 months.

Outside concussions and broken necks, ACL tears are the scariest of common injuries in sports today. Tears to the Anterior Cruciate Ligament leave athletes in multiple sports sidelined for months to a year. They are especially worrisome when multiple tears happen within a small window of time. Such is the issue for Georgia football freshman running back Zamir White.

White tore his ACL last summer on a special teams drill and missed his true freshman season. He had previously tore the ACL in his other knee during his senior season at Scotland County High School. After two ACL tears in less than 12 months, doubts about his star potential rose. He was the best running back prospect in the nation, and ranked no. 9 overall by 247Sports Composite. Living up to the rankings was now the least of White’s and Georgia’s worries.

But, Scotland County head football coach Richard Bailey doesn’t share those worries. Dawgnation’s Jeff Sentell recently caught up with Bailey and his view of White’s recovery was very optimistic. And it wasn’t the “in denial coach wanting the best for his player” kind of optimism. Bailey’s positivity is backed by medical science and his experience with other players who suffered ACL tears. To him, the best news about White’s injuries were they were only ACL tears.

"“It sounds bad to say this but he really just tore his ACL,” Bailey said to Sentell. “He didn’t tear anything else. A lot of times you tear your ACL you will tear your MCL and your meniscus and everything else.”"

Because White only tore the ACL, he didn’t require knee construction. Doctors worked on his knee arthroscopically, meaning they only made a small incision on his knee and they did the entire procedure through a tiny “keyhole” as some doctors call it. Doctors didn’t open White’s knee. They didn’t have to work on anything else.

Bailey compared White’s injuries to another player of his. A former quarterback at Scotland County tore his ACL, PCL and almost everything around his joint. The surgery required doctors to get into his knee and the player was left with a six-inch scar. You will see no such scar on White’s knee. Maybe a small “keyhole”, but nothing that will slow “Zeus” down.

"“I really feel like the chances of recovering from what he has had is 100 percent,” Bailey said. “He is going to be back and as good as ever if not better than ever. Especially with what he has added to his body in the weight room since he has been at Georgia. There’s no doubt in my mind he is going to come back and be better than he ever was or as good which is still phenomenal.”"

If Bailey is correct, this is huge news for Georgia football and horrible news for the rest of the Southeastern Conference. White has already bulked up to 235 pounds. Modern medical techniques have allowed athletes to recover from simple ACL tears without losing athleticism. White left Scotland County as an SEC ready athlete, that hasn’t changed. If anything, he’ll be more ready for his debut.

Keep in mind, he’s running behind the best and deepest offensive line in college football, and is a part of what could be the best five-man running back stable in the nation. If opponents thought they would be facing a weaker Zamir White, they’ll be disappointed to find out they’ll have to defend a stronger and fresher Zeus.