Joe Ostman promises to ‘come back stronger' after ACL surgery

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One minute you’re competing for a job in the NFL, the next minute they’re carting you off the field with a season-ending knee injury.

It’s a crazy life adjustment and it’s not an easy one to make.

“I’m still working on it,” Joe Ostman said Tuesday.

Ostman, who came out of nowhere to have a strong first two weeks at Eagles training camp, suffered a torn ACL at open practice at the Linc Sunday night and went on season-ending injured reserve on Tuesday.

He said he’s scheduled to undergo surgery as soon as the swelling in his knee subsides – sometime in the next week.

As for that adjustment? It will take a little longer.

 Being positive’s huge,” Ostman said. “A lot of people think it has an affect on the healing process, as well. It takes a little bit of an adjustment because something like that happens so fast. You go from competing every day to not being able to really barely walk the next day, so it’s a quick adjustment. But once you accept it, you just have to attack that process with a good mentality every day and that’s what I’m going to do.

Ostman spent last year on the Eagles’ practice squad as an undrafted rookie out of Central Michigan. He quickly earned the respect of all the coaches because of his intelligence and high-energy approach running scout team.

But this summer was different. He wasn’t a camp body any longer. He improved so much he actually had a legit chance to make the team.

I would say I was on track to have a role this season, but you never know,” he said. “We still have the preseason to play, but the coaches were giving me good opportunities to go out there and compete throughout camp and preseason so I think it was about me finishing camp strong and having a good preseason and I had a shot to be out there. Now I just have to come back strong next year.

Ostman said he’s never been through anything like this and actually has never suffered an injury worse than a high ankle sprain.

But he knows what he’s facing.

I have an understanding of what it’s going to be like,” he said. “It’s going to be discouraging at times during the rehab process, but I’m just going to have a good mindset, a positive attitude about it and I’m just going to work hard at it. I’m going to continue to stay in the film room with the guys and do everything I can to continue to be a part of it and just try to help the guys around me and take mental reps while I can and then as soon as I’m physically there I’m going to be back at it and hopefully build on what I did this year.

Everything was going so well for Ostman. But this is the NFL, and so many of these heart-warming stories have major bumps in the road.

And most of them don’t have happy endings. Ostman is going to do everything he can do make sure this one does.

“It’s going to be a long process and recovery,” he said. “But I’ll be back by next season and I’m going to do everything I can do come back stronger.”

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