The road to recovery has become a little longer for Ali Patberg after bone spurs were removed from her surgically repaired right knee.
The former Columbus North standout and current Notre Dame women’s basketball player tore her ACL in practice Nov. 2 and missed her entire freshman season. She ended up taking a redshirt year.
Patberg was working out with the team this summer when she began having a lot of pain. Doctors figured it might be patella tendonitis, but it wouldn’t go away. So they did an MRI and found the bone spur.
Patberg, who led North to the 2015 Class 4A state championship, was at Notre Dame for summer school. She came home for the break between summer school and the fall semester, only to quickly find out the results of the MRI and the need for surgery.
Dr. Mike Yergler, the Irish team doctor, performed the second surgery on Aug. 3 to shave off the bone spur.
“The first three weeks I was there were really good, and then I started having pain,” Patberg said. “The good thing is, I think they were happy it was just a bone spur because if it was patella tendonitis, that would be harder to treat. This is gone now.”
Patberg, the Bull Dogs’ all-time leading scorer, was back in Columbus the past couple of weeks. She returns to Notre Dame today and hopes to be back on the court when the Irish begin practice in October.
