The latest on freshman forward Leah Macy: Knee injury rehab, Year 1 Notre Dame outlook and more

Signing on a dotted line can save someone’s life. Sometimes, literally. But we’re not interested in actual life and death matters for the purposes of this update. We are interested in what’s good for Notre Dame women’s basketball, though, and, as it turns out, Notre Dame women’s basketball has been good for Leah Macy.

More than good. Life-saving? Not exactly. But if ball is life? Then absolutely.

Macy, Notre Dame’s lone freshman signee in the recruiting class of 2025, tore three separate ligaments in her knee in the middle of her senior season at Elizabethtown (Ky.) Bethlehem High School. Promise for her immediate playing future quickly turned into dubious doubt.

“When I went down, I was thinking, ‘Oh, no. I’m supposed to play college basketball in four months. What’s going to happen?'” Macy told Blue & Gold. “All of these thoughts were in my head.”

By the time Macy got to the locker room after being helped off the court, her parents were waiting for her there. And they had already made a call that could comfort their daughter more than any other.

It was to Notre Dame head coach Niele Ivey. Then Ivey called Macy.

“We didn’t want her to find out from other sources and things like that,” Macy said. “So she reached out and she was like, ‘Everything’s going to be OK.’ We had a great conversation. Definitely very emotional for me, but just to know she supported me from the minute it happened meant the world and truly showed who Notre Dame is and who Coach Ivey is as a person. I felt that support as soon as I got injured.”

It was more than emotional support. The physical side was taken care of, too.

Remember that dotted line? The one Macy inked her name on in November, officially making her a part of the Notre Dame family? By way of that signature, she was allowed to have her knee procedure performed by Fighting Irish team surgeons.

That was enormous news for the Macys.

“We wanted this done right,” Macy said. “It’s a pretty big step in my career. So just to make sure I was doing it with the right people was the first initial step for us. And Coach Ivey was like, ‘Of course.’

“To get to work with the program four months earlier than expected for me, maybe not in the type of situation I wanted it to be, there were still there in a very tough time. It gave me such a sense of relief and took a lot of stress off what the injury had for me.”

The outlook for Macy’s freshman year at Notre Dame

Notre Dame coaches and trainers were adamant about emphasizing one key point in the early stages of Macy’s recovery from surgery, which was more complicated than a standard ACL fix given the complexity that comes with the tearing of multiple ligaments.

This rehab is about the totality of Macy’s career. Not just her freshman season in South Bend.

With that, Macy wasn’t able to answer whether or not she’ll suit up for the Irish at any point in 2025-26. As of now, roughly six months post-operation, she’s only been in the weight room. She’s not yet been cleared for running, jumping or any kind of on-court activity beyond form shooting.

“She always wants me to take my time and not feel like there’s pressure on me to get back,” Macy said of Ivey. “There isn’t a timeline or anything. A lot of people put a timeline on injuries like this and that can cause some feelings when you’re going through the rehab process that you probably shouldn’t have. I feel like you should just allow yourself to heal.”

If anyone knows that, it’s Ivey. In a collegiate playing career that coincided — and not by coincidence — with Notre Dame’s first national championship, she tore her ACL twice. Through that experience, she’s been able to sympathize with players like Dara Mabrey and Olivia Miles in the last handful of seasons. They both had season-ending knee injuries during the Ivey era.

Macy’s didn’t come under Ivey’s watch, but Macy is under Ivey’s watch now. So the two bonded all summer. And there isn’t anyone else Macy would have rather had in her ear during a time like this than her new head coach.

“It’s something that’s very special and very unique,” Macy said. “Only a very small percent of players can say they have a coach that can relate to them. But also feeling the support that she has given mean just means the world because the past couple months for me has been very up-and-down with emotions and feelings, but her presence has been so steady in my rehab and recovery.

“As a head coaching doing that, it just speaks to her as a person and who she is. I think everybody knows that, but to really feel it, especially as a person who’s about to start college and move away from their family, I’ve always felt that. And my parents just felt such a sense of relief because they knew that in such a hard time, I’m always going to be taken care of and be around supportive people.”

Patience and positivity

Part of the reason Macy does not have a return-to-play date in mind is because she had two subsequent procedures on her knee after the original/main one. She described the combination of them as not something she was worried about but something that was “needed.”

“It’s just been a little different,” she said. “Allowing my body to heal and get stronger is the biggest part of this. Just taking it week by week and seeing how I feel is really where I’m at right now. It’s hard to not look forward or to the future, but I’ve learned you just have to take it by the week.”

Taking it by the week. That’s a power Macy unlocked in herself through all of this.

High-level recruits such as herself — she was a five-star talent and the No. 26 overall player in her class, according to ESPN — typically have a now, now, now lifestyle. Everything is about the next meal, practice, game, etc. In a way, it’s still been like that for Macy. Everything is about the next therapy session, rehab workout, recovery method, etc. None of those things, though, are leading directly to putting on a jersey and helping Notre Dame win a basketball game.

She has no idea when will be the first time she’s able to do that. The uncertainty of an unknown reality isn’t for everyone. It wasn’t for Macy seven months ago.

Now, it is. She’s way past pondering what-ifs.

“I definitely have more patience than I expected of myself,” Macy said. “It’s all about just trusting God’s timing and his plan for you. I would say before this, I never thought I was a very patient person. I’d never had basketball taken away from me for this long. But I’ve been surrounded by great people that have made this process and rehab go by so fast and put such a positive light on it. That has changed everything for me.

“If I had experienced this injury earlier in high school and hadn’t had access to Notre Dame, I just think it would have been totally different. I’m so grateful for that because I truly think it has changed my outlook on the last six months just because of the people and place I’ve been surrounded by.”

In the end, that’s what it’s about now for Macy and that’s what it will be about for Macy in the future. By the end of her college career, the period she spent preparing for it while injured will be a just a moment in time. But if every moment throughout it all is feels as warm and welcoming as this one — feeling “at home already,” as she described it — then it will all have panned out and have been worth it.

Macy said she feels Notre Dame is the best place for her to grow as a basketball player and person. She arrived at that conclusion quickly, and she doesn’t want to be anywhere else. She’s only been back to Kentucky once since the beginning of June. South Bend and the people she shares it with is what’s for her. She doesn’t have any doubt about it.

There is no uncertainty and unknown reality in that. Put it on a dotted line.

“We’re a great group of girls that at the end of the day just wants to win,” Macy said. “We all have great personalities that mix so well with each other. We got a lot of new faces, but the vibes in the locker room and in the weight room and on court are so good and positive. Everybody just wants to play basketball and have fun. If you have a team that just wants to do that, you’re always going to have a good culture and good vibes and energy. So I’m really excited to be with this group. We’re a great group.”