Nus Traveling Road to Recovery
2018 Schedule | Jeff White Twitter
CHARLOTTESVILLE — For talented soccer players, especially those from outside the United States, professional opportunities can be difficult to turn down, George Gelnovatch has learned during his long tenure as the head men’s coach at the University of Virginia.
And so, over winter break, Gelnovatch braced for unwelcome news after receiving a text message from All-ACC defender Sergi Nus, who was home in his native Spain. Nus wanted to know if Gelnovatch had a few minutes to talk on the phone.
“I texted him back and said, `Is this important?’ And he said, `Yes, very important,’ ” Gelnovatch recalled.
When they finally connected, Gelnovatch said, Nus “started off the conversation by saying something along the lines of, `This is terrible news. Terrible news.’ “
Gelnovatch, who’s heading into his 23rd season as head coach at his alma mater, can laugh about the exchange now. The news was not what he feared. Nus still planned to return to UVA for his final season. But on the final day of 2017, while practicing on his own, he’d torn the anterior cruciate ligament and damaged the meniscus in his right knee.
The timing wasn’t ideal — Nus missed all the Cavaliers’ games this spring — but it could have been worse. When he returned to Charlottesville, where Dr. Stephen Brockmeier operated on his knee on Feb. 5, Nus learned that if all went as scheduled he’d be ready by the start of the 2018 season.
Virginia opens Aug. 24 against New Hampshire at Klöckner Stadium, and Nus expects to be in his usual spot at center back that night.
“That’s been our goal from Day One,” said Jeff Boyer, the assistant athletic trainer who works with men’s soccer at UVA. “We looked at the calendar and said, `OK, six months is the beginning of August. Let’s go. We can do this.’ But it’s taken a lot of his hard work to get to where it is.”
Gelnovatch said: “If there’s a guy who’s going to play in six months, it’ll be him.”
Nus, who’s from Barcelona, transferred to UVA from Fresno Pacific, a Division II school in California, after the 2015-16 academic year. He made the All-ACC third team as sophomore in 2016 and again last season.
This is the first serious injury for Nus, who was on crutches for six weeks. His schedule this summer isn’t complicated. When he’s not sleeping or in class, he’s rehabbing his knee at University Hall or the McCue Center — usually under the direction of Boyer or Ed Nordenschild, UVA’s strength and conditioning coach for men’s soccer — or in the swimming pool at the North Grounds Recreation Center.
“He’s here four to six hours a day,” Gelnovatch said. “I see him every day in the weight room.”
Would be it accurate, Boyer was asked, to call the 6-2, 185-pound Nus an ideal patient? Boyer shook his head.
“If there’s a word that can go above and beyond `ideal,’ that would be it,” he said in the U-Hall athletic training room. “He’s been in here twice a day, every single day.”
Nus said: “The more work you can put in, the better. But I’m also learning how to rest and take care of my body.
“It’s a learning process, and I’m really liking it so far. And if I can come back and help the team next season, it’s going to be really, really emotional, because it’s special after a huge injury like that. I’m confident I’ll be cleared by the end of July, so I’ll have all preseason with the team to be involved again.”
Nus, who’s on track to graduate in December with a bachelor’s degree in media studies, has begun running and is allowed to kick the soccer ball, with some restrictions.
“We’ve increased from jogging up to sprinting, but there’s still no change in direction yet,” Boyer said. “He is doing ball work, but ball work means dribbling, short passing, not kicking, not shooting, not long passing. He can pass back and forth with a partner, back and forth against a wall. He can juggle, dribble, dribble through cones, all those kinds of things. He just can’t cut and change direction.”
Nus will take a strength test early next month. That will tell the medical staff what hurdles remain to the cleared in his recovery.
Also next month, Nus should be able to “start planting, cutting, changing direction, doing a little bit more ball work,” Boyer said. “So that when August hits, we’ll do the test again, and as long as he passes, then the docs will clear him.”
The Wahoos, coming off a season in which they lost in the NCAA tournament’s second round, start practice on Aug. 9.
“My anticipation, barring any upsets from here until then, would be that he’s cleared and ready to start preseason practice, and that he’s practicing,” Boyer said. “Now, whether the coaches let him play in any of the preseason exhibition games, that’s a different story.”
From a team that finished 12-4-5 last season, UVA lost several key players, including Edward Opoku, Pablo Aguilar, Jean-Christophe Koffi, Sheldon Sullivan and goalkeeper Jeff Caldwell.
Opoku led the `Hoos with eight goals last season, and Aguilar had seven. Nus, who was 4 for 4 on penalty kicks, contributed six goals and an assist. Only Opoku (20) and Aguilar (18) totaled more points than Nus (13) for UVA in 2017.
The Cavaliers’ captains this year will be Joe Bell and Robin Afamefuna. Nus has an important leadership role on the team, too.
“He’s not a captain,” Gelnovatch said, “but I think the guys have an enormous amount of respect for him, and it’s a different dynamic than your traditional captain.
“I think the guys have a high, high level of respect for how he takes care of himself. How he passes the ball. How he’s able to talk about the game.”
With Nus sidelined this spring, rising sophomore Henry Kessler started in the middle of the Cavaliers’ three-man backline. Kessler will move to left back when Nus returns.
Initially, UVA missed Nus’ passing prowess and his ability to keep possession “in our defensive half of the field,” Gelnovatch said. “But we learned a little bit about ourselves by not having him, too.”
After graduating, Nus hopes to stay in the United States and play professionally in Major League Soccer.
“I really like the league, how it’s going,” he said. “Every year there’s more money, every year there’s better players, and I just think I can help the league. And the college system is still being really useful. A lot of players are getting drafted and playing [in MLS].”
MLS teams will watch Nus closely this fall to gauge how well he’s recovered from his knee injury. He’s made remarkable progress to date, and Boyer expects that to continue.
“And it’s really a credit to him,” Boyer said. “He’s done all the work. He’s a very humble kid, a very grateful kid. He’s always thanking me, and I’m like, `Sergi, it’s my brain, but it’s your heart and it’s your desire and it’s your motivation.’ If he didn’t have that, it would be a struggle. To me, it’s much easier to rein somebody in a little bit than [have to push them]. He’s been a pleasure.”
When he left Fresno Pacific in the summer of 2016, Nus was unsure how the rest of his college career would unfold. Gelnovatch was unsure how Nus would fare at the highest level of Division I soccer.
Any concerns proved unfounded. Nus has thrived at UVA, and he’s thankful he made the move.
“I just love Charlottesville,” he said. “It has everything I need.”