K-State linebacker Daniel Green refused to let injuries slow him down this season

Imagine being a starting linebacker for the Kansas State football team and not practicing for six straight weeks because of injuries in the middle of your senior season.

Sounds difficult, right?

Under those circumstances, one might expect that type of player to miss half the schedule or produce very little while playing at half speed on Saturdays. But that was not the case for K-State defender Daniel Green. The star linebacker overcame a myriad of injuries to make 56 tackles and grab two interceptions while playing in 12 games for the Wildcats.

Now imagine what Green might be able to accomplish against Alabama later this week at the Sugar Bowl now that he is healthy.

“He’s full speed. He’s as good as he’s been,” K-State defensive coordinator Joe Klanderman said on Wednesday. “He probably wishes he had some of those weeks back. Shoot, there was probably five or six weeks in there where he didn’t really practice.”

“We did as many walkthrough things with him as we could and got him as many pictures as we could get him, but he was not practicing. He would go out there on Saturday. But his leadership and his presence was so important to us that we needed to do it that way.”

The extent of Green’s injuries were not made public until this week, but it was obvious that he was dealing with ailments during the middle of the season. He missed most of a road game against TCU while he sat on the sideline with ice packs all over his body. He was also unable to play a home game the following week against Oklahoma State.

Turns out, he barely practiced before and after those games.

“The hardest part was just not practicing for probably half the season,” Green said. “It hurt not being out there with my guys during the week. That was probably the hardest part, just watching on the sidelines and getting mental reps.

Green admits now that he has dealt with injuries to his feet, midsection and just about everywhere else this year.

Klanderman said things got bad that Green needed midseason surgery to repair one injury without going into further specifics.

“I was dealing with everything earlier this year like my foot and other things,” Green said. “It was one of those things where you have to rest and heal. I’m glad now that I am fully back to 100% with all that. I am feeling really good now.”

With that new context in mind, it is easy to see when Green got healthy.

The 6-foot-3 linebacker from Portland, Oregon, had a long stretch of games when he failed to top four tackles. They were quiet for his standards. But he started feeling better later in the year during a road game against Baylor and he had six tackles. The next week, that number jumped to seven. Then he had one of the finest games of his career against TCU in the Big 12 championship, as he recorded 10 tackles and helped the Wildcats win with a goal-line stand in overtime.

“I was flying around again,” Green said. “It was easy because I didn’t really have any injuries nagging at me.”

Added Klanderman: “He had a midseason surgery and was able to come back. He’s been phenomenal since. He’s gotten better and better each week.”

K-State players respect Green for the toughness and grit he showed to keep showing up on Saturdays no matter how he felt every other day of the week.

Now he gets an opportunity to go out in style without a single injury slowing him down.