Andrew Mukuba: From injured to focused, he's ready to have his best year

Andrew Mukuba looks to play a healthy and impactful junior campaign.

by Nikki Hood - Staff Writer - Mon Apr 03 13:00:25 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – Andrew Mukuba is finally healthy and more focused than he’s been at any time since he stepped on campus.

Mukuba’s struggles last season are well-documented. What people didn’t know? The injuries that Mukuba battled through, the injuries that caused so much pain it led to a loss of focus. There was a dislocated elbow. The sprained MCL. A painful ankle injury.

All that is in the past.

“I feel good right now. This is probably the best I've felt in a while since I got here my freshman year, and it shows,” Mukuba said last week. “The way I'm playing now and the way I'm feeling, it shows. I feel good. I feel really healthy.”

Mukuba said he had never dealt with so much in one season.

“I had a lot going on. It was unbelievable because I've never been through that much injuries. It was just crazy,” he said. “There were injuries I had that nobody would know about but me and, obviously, the training staff. Me being the person I am, I didn't really let that affect me or set me back from going out on the field and doing my best. That was unbelievable. It was crazy.

“My arm. I played with a sprained MCL. I played with a lot more than that. I just went out there and tried to do what I could do.”

It all led to a different Andrew Mukuba.

“Definitely. I don't think I was myself at all. A couple of games in, I dislocated my elbow at practice and I wasn't the same anymore,” Mukuba said. “I wasn't moving the same. It was frustrating and getting in my head. All of that affects how you perform on Saturday nights. It definitely affected how I played and how I see things. I went out there and competed and just know that whatever happened, I did my best. But the knee is affecting you because you can't move as lateral as you want. You can't really step and change direction like you want because the knee is bothering you. With my elbow, it was dislocated so I was hesitant to use it at times because I didn't want to re-hurt it because it was so fresh.

“I was a little hesitant because I wanted to protect myself so I couldn't really go out there and play free like I really wanted to. I was excited to be out there but there were a lot of things affecting how I was moving, how I thought and how things were going. I was obviously frustrated because I knew I was going out there giving it my best, but other people were thinking otherwise. I want to be on the good end of it so me not doing that, I kept getting frustrated at myself, but at the end of the day, I know I have to stay strong and just be who I am and keep pushing.”

Mukuba said he knows people will be watching his every move, wondering if he is the same player that he was during a stellar freshman season. His goal is to report to camp 10 pounds heavier (190) than he did last season, and he’s laser-focused on putting his best foot forward.

But he’s out to prove it to himself, not the doubters.

“To be honest, I don't have anything to prove. The people that are around me and the people who know me know the real me,” Mukuba said. “There's nothing to me playing football. People know what I'm capable of doing when I'm at my best and when I'm healthy and focused. This is probably the most focused I've been since I got here. That's scary to say that because my freshman year, I was really focused.

“I'm even more focused. I wouldn't say I have anything to prove because I know myself, and people know me. I don't really care or really wonder what people think of me outside of people who want to help me and build me up.”