Josie Durr is back with the Iowa soccer team after missing the 2021 season with a knee injury.

The Hawkeye midfielder tore her ACL in an exhibition game against South Dakota in August 2021. A year later, she returned to action with a goal in a scrimmage against Northern Illinois on Aug. 7.

Four games into the regular season, Durr has started every contest for the Hawkeyes.

“I feel like my performance was a lot better than I thought it was going to be,” Durr said. “It didn’t take me as long as I thought it would to get back into the swing of things.”

The holding midfielder said the first few months after getting injured in 2021 were difficult because she couldn’t play soccer and was mostly separated from the rest of the team.

On top of not being able to play, Durr couldn’t travel with the team, and individual physical therapy sessions replaced team practice for the senior from Solon.

“It was kind of hard to feel like I was still involved in the team,” Durr said.

Despite her frustration, Durr said she never lost confidence that she was going to get back to the team.

“I was like, ‘I’m just going to give rehab everything I got and I’m going to get back on the field,’ and didn’t really have any doubts,” Durr said.

During her rehab process, Durr went to physical therapy three times a week from August 2021 to April, when she started practicing with the team again.

Though contact was heavily limited during these practices, Durr said getting back to playing was a bit nerve-wracking, as she wasn’t completely sure what her knee was capable of.

“[The knee] just feels different after going through that much trauma,” Durr said. “So, just being able to overcome the new feeling of what it was supposed to feel like took me a few practices, but overall, I think I did pretty well.”

Over the summer, Durr worked out with the strength and conditioning coach, along with any players in town to keep her skills sharp until the first day of the 2022 preseason in July.

Durr said her teammates were careful to limit their contact during the first few practices to ensure she felt comfortable with her surgically repaired knee.

As she trusted herself more, she said her teammates were more willing to have physical contact with her. Durr scored her first goal of the season in the Hawkeyes’ 4-0 rout over DePaul.

The sixth-year senior is one of multiple Hawkeyes returning in 2022. Jenny Cape came for a fifth year in 2022 after missing the entire 2021 season with aplastic anemia and receiving a bone marrow transplant.

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Head coach Dave DiIanni has praised Durr’s performance so far, saying she played a huge part in his team’s win against Cal Poly and complimenting her performance after Iowa’s game against Kansas.

“I think when you have [something] taken away from you, you almost find a renewed purpose as to why you’re doing what you’re doing and why you play,” DiIanni said, “And I see that in Josie … I think she has a deep appreciation for the opportunity and is taking every practice and enjoying it.”