SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — South Charleston running back/linebacker A.D. Cunningham has been going through the rehab process since tearing his ACL late in this past football season.
The senior, who signed last week with Charlotte, has actually been ahead of schedule recovering from the surgery.
“I’m finishing up therapy now – I have a couple of weeks left and about 85 percent back right now,” Cunningham said. “Probably in a couple of weeks I’ll be back to 100 percent. I’ve been a month ahead of schedule.”
Cunningham is also a basketball standout for the Black Eagles, but has missed all of this season with the injury. He floated around the idea of trying to come back for the end of the season – but as of now, that’s not in the works.
“After I went to the doctor for my third checkup, he told me I was healing fast,” Cunningham said. “My knee was getting stronger through therapy and I just wanted to get back into things, get my weight down and back in the swing of things. I was going to go back out (for basketball), but that kind of got shutdown and I didn’t want to risk anything. So, I’m where I’m at right now.”
Before his injury, Cunningham had collected 884 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns for the Black Eagles, to go along with 22 catches for 402 yards and six more scores. South Charleston went on to advance in postseason play to the Class AAA state championship game.
“That was very difficult (mentally),” Cunningham said. “But the thing is, my ACL has probably been torn for about two years. It’s probably been torn since my sophomore year when I had all of those problems (with my knee) – the doctors that I saw may have misdiagnosed it. I probably could have finished out the year, but I just wanted to get it fixed.”
Cunningham committed to Charlotte early in the recruiting process, April of his junior year — a move that he said ultimately benefited him after suffering the injury.
“Their loyalty really drew me in,” Cunningham said. “I visited a couple other places, but they didn’t really flock to me how Charlotte did. Charlotte showed me love from the time they came to see me and when they offered me – that’s really what drew me. It was a very warming welcome.
“I think it was a blessing for me to commit there early,” he continued. “With this injury, who knows where I would have been. I probably wouldn’t (have even signed yet). It was a blessing to sign my national letter of intent to the University of Charlotte. Not everyone gets the opportunity to do this.”
Cunningham is expected to start out with the 49ers at linebacker.
“My expectations will be to get on the field,” he said. “I’m just going to do whatever they ask me to do. They haven’t really told me more of my role, but whatever they tell me is what I’m going to do.”
The complete interview with Cunningham is posted at the top of the page.
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