Surgery Tuesday for Big D

A four-star Illinois football recruit heads to surgery today, hoping that doctors can successfully repair an ACL injury that was not properly diagnosed until several months later.

D'Angelo McCray

D'Angelo McCray, a 6-foot-4, 290-pound defensive lineman from Jacksonville (Fl.) Jackson, is scheduled to under the knife at 11 a.m. EST today, a move scheduled by doctors after a post-season MRI revealed that an injury originally thought to be confined to the meniscus was indeed a slightly torn anterior cruciate ligament.

"When I was down, at first I couldn't move, but then a week or so afterward, I was walking on it," McCray said Tuesday night. "The doctors thought it was only a tear, so they cleared me to play the rest of the year."

The injury occurred during the first game of McCray's senior season, and he said that throughout the aftermath of the injury, the coaching staff at Illinois has been nothing but supportive.

"Coach Zook is actually coming down to see me Wednesday, he's coming to my home," McCray said. "He's just a pretty cool, down to earth guy."
(This article originally appeared on www.orangeandbluenews.com.)

According to McCray, his doctors have told him that he will be 100 percent by July, and ready to start working out with the Illini football program this summer. He plans to move to Champaign soon after graduating from high school in May in an effort to settle in to his new home and begin rehabbing with team staff as soon as possible. But the rehabilition effort will start well before then, in Jacksonville.

"I got a little membership to the gym, so I'm going to be in the pool a lot. I can still work my upper body, so I'm going to be working that a lot, and then going in to the pool and whirlpool to try and build back my leg."

McCray will officially ink with the Illini at a signing day press conference at Jackson High School February 7.