CNOS Orthopaedic Surgeon Helps Collegiate Wrestler through Extensive Knee Injury

Nov 5, 2024

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Wrestling was a way of life for one college athlete. Until, a day at practice took a wrong turn. Jessica Bowman introduces us to one competitor who was forced to undergo surgery. Northwestern College Red Raiders Wrestling. That’s Lincoln Siebert assisting on the mat. “I’ve wrestled about ten years, and I just love it. I love the grittiness and the hardness of it,” said Lincoln Siebert, patient.

Wrestling is in his blood. He moved from Wyoming to wrestle for the GPAC conference school. In 2023, Siebert was a junior, ready to take on the season. “We had just finished our two-a-days, like right before the season officially starts. I was excited to get into another year and I was excited to get on the mat and start working,” said Siebert. It was day two of official practice, the team was warming up. “So, I go to lift my partner up and my right foot gets kind of pinched in and my toe kind of sticks in the mat. My partner comes up, he slips, and the two of us come straight down. My knee is pitched in towards the center of my body and the two of us go straight down on top of it. That’s like 600 pounds, almost 600 pounds coming straight down on it and everything just kind of popped,” said Siebert.

“We have our mcl here on the inside part of the knee. This here is the tibia. In this case he actually pulled an avulsion right off the tibia. If we flip the knee open, he tore through the mid portion of his acl and then he tore through the mid portion of his pcl back here. Also, this back part of the meniscus that attaches the bone, he ripped that up as well,” said Dr. Joshua Locker, CNOS Orthopaedic Surgeon.

Dr. Joshua Locker is a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon specializing in sports medicine. He says this was an extensive injury and required surgery. The main goal, to get a stable knee back. “In his case we could fix or repair the mcl. Then we reconstruct or basically give him a new pcl and acl. Then, also repair that meniscus back down to the bone,” said Locker.

Dr. Locker said the rehab was essentially a balance of letting all those ligaments heal without them getting stretched out. But still getting his motion and his strength back at the same time. That process took more than eight weeks. But Siebert had a goal set.

“In his case he’s active in wrestling. Maybe not getting back into wrestling, but at least to coaching and stuff like that. I remember the first time I saw him. He said he was getting married that summer and he and his fiancé, dancing was really important to them, and he just really wanted to make sure he could be back to dancing for his wedding that summer,” said Locker.

“We got engaged swing dancing and that’s something we always did for fun, so that was a big deal for us to be able to do. So, time came and we felt good so we went with it,” said Siebert. “The reinjury risk is too high to be worth coming back to compete again for one year of NAIA college athletics isn’t worth a lifetime of not being able to run around with my kids and be on the floor doing stuff with them. So, I was like yeah, that is not in my cards,” said Siebert. Siebert did return to the mat, not as a competitive wrestler, but to help lead and coach his teammates assisting with technique guidance.

“So, it’s been a lot of fun being able to be on the mat still and be with the guys and just helping coach them up a little bit,” said Siebert. A year later Siebert is still assisting the team and working to fully heal from his substantial injury.

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