Tajon Buchanan played his first game action since Sept. 7 against Colgate on Monday. The sophomore, who went down in the second half of Syracuse’s (3-3-1, 0-2-2 Atlantic Coast) Sept. 7 match against then-No. 12 Notre Dame with a left knee injury came off the bench for SU in the 30th minute. Buchanan recorded three shots to lead all SU players in a 1-1 draw.

“He’s been out for a while,” McIntyre said, “but it was nice to see him in an Orange jersey.”

The Orange rotated often throughout the early going of the game. McIntyre said Buchanan allowed the Orange to have more flexibility in its front as the team still was recovering from “tired legs” after its game against Virginia just four days earlier.

Since the injury, Buchanan had been participating in warm-up drills with the Orange. A week after the injury, McIntyre said getting him on the practice field was just to “get him some fresh air” and that he didn’t participate in anything past warmups early on.

Buchanan worked with the SU trainers throughout his absence. He did drills and went to training sessions to help strengthen his knee, but he said that the action got more comfortable as the game went on Monday.

He gave Syracuse its first meaningful strike in the 43rd minute, a header shot right to the Colgate keeper. He wore a knee brace, but he said the movement felt good and there were no setbacks as the game went along.

“It’s just a mindset thing,” Buchanan said of playing with the knee brace. “If I want to tell myself if it’s annoying, then it’s going to be annoying.”

He started the second half and said he is going to keep working with the SU staff to get back to 100 percent. Holding him out for this long was a decision by the medical staff. Now he hopes he can start making starts again.

Published on September 24, 2018 at 11:33 pm

Contact Michael: mmcclear@syr.edu | @MikeJMcCleary