(WXYZ) — Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alim McNeill is making his return to the team during the Monday Night Football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
McNeil has been out since late last season after the lineman tore his ACL. He returned to practice at the start of this month.
Watch our full interview with McNeill in the video below
He told our Alex Crescenti that at the time of his injury, he had never really had a real injury like that before, and thought he could just walk it off.
"I got back to the sideline and I'm trying to run on it and do all this and that and whatever. "I'm like, it's just not stable, something ain't right."
"You seem to be the same person coming out of this, but did you learn anything about yourself?" Alex asked him.
"I did. I learned a lot about myself. I learned that I could go a lot further than what I was going. I always pushed my limits, but I pushed my limits to a way that I never had with this, because you have to. You can't just get this to the bare minimum. Like we're not, this is a high school football, this is the NFL. So it's like, I had to get my leg back to a point where I could perform out here," he said.
What emotions does he expect to feel when he hits the field.
"It's going to be a cool moment, just to be able to run back out there again," he said.
