Dillon Serna Returning to the Fold for Rapids

by Brian Jennings

Seven months after he suffered an ACL and lateral meniscus tear in his right knee at the harsh tackle of FC Dallas defender Augustin Jara, Colorado’s Dillon Serna is getting re-acquainted with his squad on the field as the 2017 preseason kicked off for Colorado this past week.  “I’m really excited,” says the homegrown and hometown midfielder understandably after his 2016 season was cut short.  “Still being able to be around these guys in the locker room, interact with them like normal, definitely helped so it has gone by fast but it was a long journey and process.”  

Serna has returned to striking balls and running laterally as the Rapids began their pre-season at the bubble on the campus of Colorado University in Boulder just days ago.  “We’re almost to 7 months, and they said 7-8 months is what we’re looking at in the beginning, so we’re looking at 7 and a half months and I’ll be back one hundred percent.”

However, Dillon knows there’s no reason to rush anything at this point after so much hard work has gone into getting him ready to play again.  “I’m not going to rush, not going to be too eager, but I’m definitely seeing the light.  I understand that it’s a long season and if I come back 2-3 weeks into the season I’m not going to be missing much.”

What remains is getting himself back to 90-minute fitness and some strength work according to Serna on what’s left on his checklist.  “Fitness is a big one.  I still have a little bit of strength I have to get in my quad(ricep) but we’ve done the measurements and we’re not far off at all so we’re almost to how it was before.  I’ve seen multiple doctors and they’ve said my ACL is 100 percent healed so it’s just about building the muscles back up and trusting it.”

“Right now I’ve started doing some cutting, change of directions stuff, all that’s been great.  I’m about 3-4 weeks away from jumping in to full contact, everything.  I’ve been in the gym for the last 3-4 months so it’s just the change of directions stuff which will come from running.”

Contrary to a self-doubt which could be expected from such a serious injury the way it was dealt to him, Serna insists he’s going to be back as the same confident, goal-scoring threat he was just prior to being taken out, saying, “I can’t go into training or a game with that kind of mentality.  I think I’ll come in, hopefully do well, and be able to jump in and be back to normal.”