More than eight months after tearing her ACL, Murray State junior forward Destiny Thomas isn’t ready to return to the court yet — but she’s getting closer by the day.
Thomas injured her knee on January 24th against Indiana State. After a summer of rehab, Murray State Head Coach Rechelle Turner is pleased with what she’s seen.
“She’s doing great,” Turner said. “She’s making great progress. It’s just a matter of time. She can do some non-contact stuff. Hopefully in the next month or so, she’ll get back into practice. Anymore, ACL’s are about a year-long deal, so we’ve got to make sure that she’s ready, she doesn’t come back too early, and that she’s mentally and physically where she needs to be.”
Thomas was adamant back in early February that she wanted to be ready to roll by the start of the season in November. At this point, it appears she’ll fall short of that goal. Aside from doing non-contact work in practice, Turner said not only has Thomas not been medically cleared to return to full-contact practice, she said there is no timetable at this point for that to happen.
While Thomas always wanted to be ready to play on opening night, Turner has long believed that the start of the Missouri Valley schedule around January 1st would be a more realistic goal for her junior forward to be ready to play. At this point, that looks to be more of the target for Thomas’ return. The bottom line is it’s not a matter of if Thomas returns this season, we’re just waiting on the when.