Minnesota Football: Mitch Leidner feels a lot better after surgery|Minnesota Hot Topics|Team BattleGround|College BattleGround

In other news, foot surgery doesn’t look fun.

In case you thought all the talk about Mitch being hurt last year was overblown, I direct you to this tweet:

/shudders

Yes, that’s actually Mitch’s foot following his surgery. No, that doesn’t look fun at all. What got Mitch to the point of needing all…that? Well, here’s a description from Andy Greder of the PiPress:

Mitch Leidner first tore a ligament in his left foot against Texas Christian.

[snip]

He ripped it, and played through it, in 2014.

Then in the first week of the 2015 preseason camp, he tore another ligament. In the third game against Kent State, he said he dislocated his “second toe and tore some ligaments around that one.”

[snip]

Before the Quick Lane Bowl on Dec. 28, a magnetic resonance imaging test revealed “nothing left,” he said. Leidner stared down questions about him playing and earned MVP honors in the 21-14 win over Central Michigan.

After the game, he quickly had surgery to “reconstruct the whole top of my foot,” and then rehabbed during spring practices.

The results of surgery (especially foot surgery) often look worse than they feel. Here’s Andy on how Mitch is recovering:

Leidner is preparing to finish this season healthy. He has shed 20 pounds since the December surgery to be exactly 230. After coping with not being able to sprint, he’s now going 100 percent and has increased his miles per hour from 18-19 to 20-21.

How this will translate onto the field remains to be seen, but given everything Mitch has been through you can’t help but root for the guy to have a great season!