Miladinovic suffers long recovery from football injury

Elyse Osterberg, Business Manager

Junior Sergej Miladinovic suffered a massive injury during the Sept. 16 football game against Plymouth that had him out for the rest of the season.
“I broke both bones in my leg, a tibia/fibula compound break,” Miladinovic said.
The moment of the injury was frightening for Sergej’s mother Snezana Miladinovic.
“I was at first in shock and did not know who got hurt but then I was quickly told it was Sergej that was hurt and I did not know at first that he broke both of bones in his leg I thought that he bruised or pulled something but as I went onto the field and seen the leg I quickly realized that was not the case,” Snezana Miladinovic said.
Due to his injury Sergej had to undergo multiple surgeries.
“The first procedure I had was realigning the bones in a cast hoping it will fuse, which was a three-week long process,” Sergej said.

X-ray of junior Sergej Miladinovic’s leg shows compound break of the fibula and tibia. (Photo courtesy of Sergej Miladinovic )

The procedure unfortunately did not work which meant Sergej had to go into surgery.
“They ended up drilling underneath my kneecap all the way down my tibia and hollowed out the bone all the way down to my ankle and put a titanium rod stabilizing the break. They also cut the side of my ankle, drilled two screws into the tibia fibula and did the same thing a little underneath my knee,” Sergej said.
His recovery will take some time as the injury was quite severe.
“The recovery has been going slow. The main thing that I am waiting on is for the bones to fuse together, and they did not end up casting it after surgery for faster recovery,” Sergej said.
Although the recovery has been long his team has shown great support.
“When Sergej was able to come home from the hospital, I know a bunch of our team members went over to visit with him. I know that lifted his spirits,” Head Football Coach Joe Stellmacher said.
Sergej says he greatly appreciates everything the team has done for him during this tough time.
“My teammates have tremendously supported me through the whole process and I thank them all for that,” Sergej said.