After the recent announcement regarding the status of Lee Evans’ knee, you can’t help but feel for the guy. After he struggled all summer and fall to rehab his knee with the point of contributing to the Badger football team this year, now he must do it all again.

Not only is a season-ending knee injury, or any season-ending injury for the matter, devastating enough, but to have to go through the whole process again is just a cruel twist of fate.

This Friday, Evans will have his ACL surgery done for the second time, and once again he will face the agonizing process of mounting another comeback.

Equally important is the fact that Evans will have to decide if he will put off the NFL for another year or if he will once again grace the Camp Randall field and try to resurrect the team for a more successful 2003 season.

Six months is an impressive time for an ACL injury recovery, and since Evans’ knee has already shown it was not able to work with that speed of a recovery the first time, there is not a good possibility the second recovery will move much faster. Knee injuries are tricky injuries, and they are some of the hardest injuries in the world to rush and get back to playing speed.

Even if Evans gave his knee the bare minimum six months to recover, that would put his return around May 21, well after the April NFL draft. If he did declare himself eligible for the draft, any team that would take the chance on him would most likely just have to pray his knee would heal and hope that after not playing for over a year he would be able to regain his previous form.

That is a quite a big risk for any NFL team to take.

This time, when Evans makes the decision to return to UW as a student or to try out his chances in the NFL, it will seem like the logical decision for him to return to UW.

After last season, many thought Evans was crazy not to declare himself eligible for the draft after his 2001 season, in which he set a Big Ten single-season receiving record of 1,545 yards. But in the end, it was Evans’ heart and love of UW and the college life that made his decision for him. In a day where athletes seem to care more about the dough then the sport, Evans is truly a guy who proved he thinks just the opposite of many talented athletes.

He is still around, because in the end, the sport is more important to him. He could have easily gone to the NFL and sat in his Porsche and driven around a new city, but Evans resisted that in favor of the likes of State Street, the KK and, of course, Camp Randall, along with all that accompanies it.

Once again, it is up to Evans to make a decision with his heart. Does he really think he can get himself ready for the NFL in time, or would it be better to suit up in the ole red and white for another season, have another impressive year and make the scouts take him seriously when he finally graduates from UW?

There have been many examples of knee problems plaguing different UW athletes in the past few years, but they took the time to rehab and strengthen themselves and are now putting themselves in the position to succeed in their post-UW days.

One prime example of that is UW volleyball player Lisa Zukowksi.

On Oct. 26 last season, in a game against Ohio State, Zukowski went down in a crumpled heap as she tore her left ACL. Through quality rehab and a realistic timetable, the junior libero was able to return for the Badgers this season in top form, maybe even playing better this year than last year, as she was given time to focus more on fundamentals and improve her game in every way. The injury was not rushed. It was given time to heal, and the results have spoken for themselves.

This year, Zukowski has been one of only two players on the team to play in all 98 games and is averaging 2.60 digs per game.

Another UW athlete that experienced a season-ending injury was Valentine Anozie. After his junior year, the talented forward took a medical redshirt to allow his torn MCL time to recover.

Instead of making himself eligible for the MLS draft, Anozie returned to finish out his UW soccer career and was named captain of this year’s UW squad that went 9-9. He ended the season third on the team in total points, with four goals and three assists and, more importantly, gave the team a solid leader to teach the vast number of underclassmen the ropes.

The examples are there; if a player gives himself or herself the time to recover from a knee injury and takes the time to have a thorough recovery, the results will benefit the athlete in the long run.

If Evans wants to make the right decision regarding the health of his knee, he will take the time to do the therapy right, give his knee a wealth of time to recover and return to UW to reap the benefits of his patience. In the end, those who do the right things in their lives will be rewarded, and Evans will not be an exception to this rule.