Two-time national champion wrestler Brendan McKeage did not clinch a spot on the Canada Summer Games team this year … but not because he was muscled off the mat.
One of Alberta’s top prospects going into Saturday’s qualifying matches wasn’t able to wrestle at all, as he’s been nursing a nasty knee injury that will keep him out of competition for at least the rest of the spring season.
McKeage is a multi-sport athlete who plays soccer and rugby in addition to his time with the Cochrane Cowboys Wrestling Club. It was in one of those soccer games a couple of weeks ago that his left knee – which he said had been threatening to give him trouble – finally gave out.
“It was a slide tackle. I felt it click again … It was locked like that,” said the teen, holding his leg in a slightly bent position. “I couldn’t move it physically. I couldn’t move it for a week and a half.”
Doctors suspect McKeage damaged his meniscus, although an appointment with a specialist at the University of Calgary yesterday after press time was scheduled to assess the injury more carefully and determine whether surgery will be necessary. The high school senior recently signed with the U of C Dinos wrestling club and is already a familiar face around the post-secondary institution.
If McKeage is able to recover in time, Wrestling Alberta will organize his second and possibly third qualifying matches for a chance to make the Canada Summer Games team.
With university on the horizon, however, the 17-year-old said he’s not sure if he’s willing to risk further damage in the long term for excitement of the short-term experience.
“I’m going to have to see if taking the summer off … will be more important,” he said.
McKeage is no stranger to injury, busting his back out last year and breaking his right arm twice in 2015: once in rugby, and again during a match against Saskatchewan’s Mitchell Meekins at the Western Canada Summer Games.
The athlete fought through the pain and continued to wrestle all the way to a silver medal in that competition with that fractured forearm, before requiring titanium plates and screws to stabilize the break.
Despite not being able to do what he does best, McKeage said he’s not going to put too much pressure on himself about the hopefully-temporary setback.
“It doesn’t really help you,” he said of stressing out. “You’ve got to hope for the best and prepare for the worst. It’s kind of out of my hands now.”
