‘I just couldn’t be myself’: Curbelo Describes His Return From Concussion-Related Symptoms
For the first time since returning to action, Illinois sophomore guard Andre Curbelo described the feelings of his two-month absence that included physical, mental and emotional pain.
By Matt Stevens - IlliniGuys Football Writer/Analyst
January 20, 2022
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- While several people around him speculate and have questions about the difficulty of what he’s attempting on the basketball court now, Andre Curbelo believes the hard part is over.
The sophomore point guard returned to the active lineup Monday in a 25-minute session during the double-overtime loss to Purdue but nothing he did in that afternoon was as taxing to his mind and body as trying to figure out the recovery from a long list of consistent symptoms from a severe head injury.
“It’s scary when you don’t really have a lot of answers and you don’t have a lot of knowledge of what’s going on,” Curbelo said. “There was a time where I was like, ‘This seems like it’s going to be forever. This seems like I’m never going to be back.’ Typical college athlete mindset when you get an injury like this, you start thinking about the worst because you don’t want to be in shock when you get the news that either you can’t play or you can’t do this, you can’t do that for this long.”