After months of grueling rehab and relearning to walk, run and, eventually, play lacrosse, Maryland Whipsnakes midfielder Brad Smith returned to the game he loves, demonstrating that resilience can rewrite any storyline.

Smith spent over 500 days away from competitive lacrosse due to an injury to his left knee. Then, he returned to the field for the Whipsnakes in the 2025 Lexus Championship Series and picked up right where he left off.

The 27-year-old led the Whipsnakes in points (19) and scoring points (14) on 52.9% shooting and paced the entire series in two-point goals (five).

"I've had [the 2025 Championship Series] circled on my calendar for as long as I can remember, dating back to the fall of 2023,” Smith said. "After figuring out my surgery timeline, I thought this might work out where I could be playing in the Champ Series."

After athletes return to the top of their game, many fans forget about the hardships and focus on their newfound success. However, Smith has not forgotten his resilience in recovering from his knee injury.

'No cartilage in my knee'

Everything started to unravel for Smith during training camp in Albany ahead of the 2023 regular season. During a scrimmage against the Chaos, after feeling confident in his offseason training, Smith realized that something with his left knee was not right.

"I must have just taken an odd plant with my left knee and kind of lost control of my leg," he said. "I figured out later that I had no cartilage in my knee at the time, so I had my kneecap and my tibia bumping into each other, and the body's defense mechanism when you have bone-on-bone contact like that is to kind of shut off your quad. So that was the sensation that I was feeling."

After withdrawing from the scrimmage, Smith decided to sit out the Whipsnakes' season opener and scheduled an MRI to get a more in-depth look at his injured knee.

That’s when the two-time PLL Champion, who was coming off an All-Star nod in 2022 and was already hoping for a speedy recovery, received a bittersweet diagnosis.

"At that point, the MRI showed that there were two cracks in the cartilage on my knee. One was almost directly behind my kneecap, and the other was a little bit lower," Smith said.

"You are fine the way your knee is now," Smith recalled the doctors telling him. "It is inflamed and pretty pissed off, but as long as you give it some rest, you should be fine, make a full recovery and be able to come back from this with no surgery."

While it was clear that his knee did not require surgery, the recovery period meant a six-week hiatus from the 2023 PLL season.

To Smith, his dedication to being in the best shape he could be entering the season was seemingly flushed away with a single step in a preseason scrimmage.

"It felt like something I should be able to push through and play, and you do all this preparation and work hard throughout the winter, and the spring to prepare yourself for the season, and to not be able to go out there with your teammates and have to sit on the couch and watch the games is not fun," Smith said.

"I was pretty frustrated at that point because everything felt fine, and I just couldn't really get my leg to run, plant or do anything. It was tough going through a majority of training camp and then having something like that happen where you don't think you did anything too serious to your leg, but it's just not operating the way you expect."

Yet, not one to back down from a challenge, Smith persevered and began physical therapy to prepare for a targeted midseason return. With consistent training and planned rest, Smith reached his goal and returned to suit up with his teammates on the final weekend of July.

As fate would have it, Smith faced off against the same club the Whipsnakes scrimmaged when he first discovered his injury, the Chaos. Smith took full advantage of being back on the field and tallied four points (2G, 1T, 1A) in a 17-16 victory, just the Whipsnakes' second of the season.

The Whipsnakes won Smith’s next two games, as well. He finished the season with 11 points (5G, 1T, 5A) in five games. But he still didn't feel like his whole self on the field.

"I came back and played, but I don't think I was at full strength. I just didn't feel as fast or as strong as I had coming into the season," Smith said. "I did what I could to play out the rest of that year, and the plan was always to get [my knee] re-imaged at the end of the season to see how everything went."

A second setback

In December 2023, Smith returned to the doctor for a follow-up MRI.

"When I got that second MRI, all the cartilage between the two cracks was gone and floating around in my knee," Smith said. "At that point, the doctor was like, this is something we need to fix, and if you don’t have this surgery, then you are probably looking at a full knee replacement in the next two to three years."

Smith did not hesitate to proceed with the surgery. He understood that, while he would be sidelined for a period in the short term, there was a chance for recovery in the long run.

"By the time that 2023 season ended, I knew something pretty serious was going on in my knee," Smith said. "At that point, it was like, I want to be able to walk for the rest of my life. I want to be able to play sports with my kids down the line and have a normal life."

Because Smith lost all of his cartilage from overworking his knee since his last MRI, he needed a transplant as part of his surgery.

"Essentially, what they did was get donor cartilage from a cadaver,” he explained. “They shaped it and cleared out all of the dead cartilage and ligaments in my knee, and then made two cartilage graphs and plugged them into my knee right behind my kneecap.

"It's a pretty long recovery. You are hoping that my cartilage grows and forms to the donor cartilage over a certain amount of time."

That time depended on Smith's dedication to his recovery, which started almost immediately after his procedure.

"The surgery is such that they want you moving the knee right after the fact," Smith said. "So, no weight on it, but I had a continuous passive motion machine and was in that machine for five to six hours a day. I would alternate between that and ice and compressions."

After the surgery, Smith was unable to bear weight on his left leg for more than six weeks. Then, he began physical therapy to learn to walk again.

"Pretty consistently, for the next six months, I would be at PT three times a week for two-and-a-half hours," Smith said. "... That was where I did a lot of the recovery and strength-building."

Even with consistent training, it took nearly six months for Smith to be able to run again and even longer to get back on the field playing the sport he loves.

"It took about nine months after my surgery to cut and jump and start to get into some real lacrosse movements," Smith said.

During the nine months of Smith's recovery and rehab, his lacrosse career was temporarily halted. But the rest of the world continued to spin.

The Whipsnakes established a home in Maryland, secured a spot in the 2024 Cash App Championship game and welcomed new star attackman TJ Malone, the 2024 Rookie of the Year, while Smith watched from his couch or his physical therapy office.

Smith used being sidelined as motivation. Through relentless determination and unwavering discipline, he committed fully to recovery, emerging stronger and healthier than ever before.

"[My knee] feels great now, a hell of a lot better than it did pre-surgery,” Smith said. “Getting all that strength back took a while, and I am fired up. I am glad to be back healthy and able to play at this point."

The next chapter

While Smith is pumped to be back and dressed in a Whipsnakes uniform, his injury and recovery gave him a newfound perspective on his life during and after his professional career.

"I need to make sure I am doing what is best for the long haul," Smith said. "I understand that my sports career is not going to last for as long as my life, so you need to take care of your body for the next 40, 50, 60 years."

But even with Smith’s new viewpoint on his health and outlook on his life, being able to put back on a Whipsnakes jersey in the Lexus Championship Series reminded him just how much he loves the sport he has dedicated his life to.

"It was a long road back, but I missed being in the locker room, competing and playing each weekend in the summer," Smith said.

After dominating Sixes in February, Smith will finally have a chance at redemption in the field season this summer, which he has missed for far too long.

"Brad's a talented player," Whipsnakes head coach Jim Stagnitta said. "He's a veteran, and it's exciting just to have him back."