Thomastown’s Aaron D’Angelo details how he played on after tearing his ACL

They are possibly the worst four words in footy, it means 12 months of rehab and watching from the sidelines.

When Aaron D’Angelo felt his knee pop at training in March he was determined not to miss an entire year.

As it turned out, the Thomastown leader hardly missed a game.

After two matches in the reserves he played the last 13 games of the NFNL Division 2 season in the Bears’ senior team.

A conversation with a former teammate opened up the possibility to a quick return to action.

“I’d done my other knee before, so I knew it wasn’t good,” D’Angelo said.

“I tried to run and it didn’t work, I got the scans and had the bad news but because it was really late in the pre-season I didn’t want to not play.

“I had a conversation with Andrew Tang, who is a physio, and he was in a similar position last year – he played after a 12-week recovery without surgery.

“He said why don’t you do a rehab of eight to 10 weeks and get your leg fully strengthened and if it feels alright keep going or, if not, you’ve done a prehab before the surgery and you’re in a better spot anyway.

“I trained pretty much every day and started playing and got through pretty well actually.”

D’Angelo injured his knee in a pre-season training drill, twisting his knee and feeling a “weird sensation” run down his leg.

He said he spent almost every day in the following weeks strengthening the ligaments and surrounding muscles to support his knee.

The key defender made his return to Thomastown’s senior team in Round 5 against Watsonia, helping the club claim its first win of the season.

The Bears would win three games in a five-week span with D’Angelo back in the team.

However, D’Angelo said there was one major issue that he still needed to overcome.

“I pulled up pretty solid every week, I didn’t have any major setbacks,” he said.

“I felt less springy and mobile than what I’m used to, so that will be a challenge to work through this pre-season – I’m still up in the air about having the surgery or not.

“Kicking was the hardest thing.

“It was hard to lock my leg kicking the ball because I didn’t have the sensation of feeling the ACL, that’s what keeps the lower and upper part of the leg together.

“That was the thing that took the longest, it would leave me feeling numb after a couple of kicks.”

D’Angelo went through the tradition reconstruction surgery on his other knee in 2018.

He believes his work in personal training gave him the tools to be able to make it work.

“I know it’s not a common thing but it’s happened before and I know a few different people have done it, so that gave me confidence,” he said.

“Having the experience from the previous surgery, knowing if I can get it strong enough to continue I can give it a crack.

“Being a personal trainer I had a head start and, to be honest, having that background and having strong legs got me to that position.

“Most people would be underdeveloped in their lower body strength, wouldn’t have the support for the knee to do the sprints and agility.

“I work in a gym so I was there every day anyway, whereas if someone has different work and commitments it would be harder to get into the gym.”

Entering the 2025 season with plenty of hope, Thomastown was quickly smashed by a series of injuries to key players.

It left the club facing the possibility to relegation until a Round 17 victory over Old Paradians secured Division 2 football for 2026.

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D’Angelo is confident the club can quickly jump back up the ladder.

“It’s probably the strongest connection and camaraderie we’ve had in a long time,” he said.

“I think that’s what kept us in good stead, results didn’t go our way and we did have a lot of injuries at the start of the year.

“We feel if we can have a good run at it we’ve got the team and environment to make us better and move back up the ladder – it’s a bump in the road that isn’t going to derail us.”

Originally published as Thomastown’s Aaron D’Angelo details how he played on after tearing his ACL