Wisconsin freshman defensive lineman Curt Neal medically cleared for the summer

One of Wisconsin's top signees from the 2022 recruiting class is cleared to fully participate after recovering from knee surgery.

Author:
Matt Belz
Publish date:
Jun 1, 2022 11:38 AM EDT

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Wisconsin Badgers

After sustaining an ACL injury that sidelined him for his entire senior season, Wisconsin freshman defensive lineman Curt Neal opted to enroll early with the Badgers to accelerate his recovery with the strength and conditioning staff.

While he went through some individual work during the spring, the highly-recruited three-star lineman could not participate in any team activities as he worked his way back to full health.

On Tuesday, Neal took to Twitter to announce that he's completely recovered, saying, "finally medically cleared to participate in everything!"

A heralded recruit out of Williams Amos Hough High School in North Carolina, Neal was one of the top recruiting wins for the Badgers in the 2022 class. Rated as a three-star prospect, he ultimately chose Wisconsin over other offers from Alabama, LSU, Ohio State, North Carolina, Oregon, and plenty of others.

With the graduation of veteran nose tackle Bryson Williams, the news that Neal will be fully available this summer and in the fall is a relief for Wisconsin fans and an exciting development for Neal, who admitted that the road to recovery was a "long mental battle for" on Twitter.

While star defensive lineman Keeanu Benton is back for his senior year, Neal helps provide needed depth at the position. With Benton held out at times for precautionary reasons this spring, Ben Barten was the only healthy nose tackle for team activities as fellow defensive lineman Gio Paez also battled an injury.

Listed at 6-foot and 288 pounds according to the spring roster released by Wisconsin, Neal is incredibly quick and has a low base that makes him a handful as an interior defensive lineman. It will be interesting to see what he can do in fall camp and if he can push Barten and Paez for a spot in the two-deep behind Benton.

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