It’s been nearly three years since Jon May has felt things were normal in his wrestling career.

Since last December, Nebraska’s 285-pounder has been hobbled by knee injuries that continue to slow him.

But the senior from Hutchinson, Minn., said the adversity has only inspired him to work that much harder in his final season.

“(The injury) was real frustrating because I felt my sophomore season ended, well, real bitterly. I felt I didn’t live up to my own expectations,” said May, who suffered a first-round loss at the NCAA Championships.

“I felt I was doing all the right things, going through the correct motions last year. It was just one of those things.”

So in the offseason, May worked hard to get back into wrestling shape, even joining 197-pound teammate Craig Brester for a week working out with former Husker B.J. Padden at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Then, a week into fall practice, May hurt his right knee and had arthroscopic surgery on both knees.

Since the surgeries, he’s been working out with true freshman Tucker Lane, and that’s something May is grateful for.

“My freshman year, I was competing for a starting spot, so I had a partner for that, but other than that I haven’t had a real solid, everyday workout partner,” May said.

“Tucker is a person who is real mature, and every day he’s getting better. I’ve never seen a guy that strong coming out of high school. He’s one of the harder workers in the room and he’s going to be great.”

Right now, May is hobbled ever so slightly, enough to make it possible that he might not return to the mat when the Huskers open their season this weekend in Laramie, Wyo., with a dual against Wyoming on Friday night and the Cowboy Open on Saturday.

May said he wants to compete this weekend, but knows his knees aren’t 100 percent yet.

“I’ve been favoring my left knee a little in practice,” he said, “and I’m trying to break that habit. It will be interesting to see what happens when I finally wrestle a match.”

Nebraska coach Mark Manning might be concerned about May’s health, but not his mental approach.

“Jon has grown up a lot, moved himself forward,” Manning said. “A lot of guys would feel bad about what happened (having his junior season end early because of a knee injury).

“But Jon has really bought in to the team approach and it’s been a great thing for him. He’s leading by example in practice, showing the other wrestlers he’s going into his senior year knowing he has one last shot.

“We hope he’ll cash that in in March.”

So does May. And he knows it could all start this weekend.

“I try not to think about it like,  ‘I’m finally getting back on the mat,’” May said.

“I’ve got roughly more six months of wrestling left for the rest of my life. So I have to take it one match at a time, not looking ahead and not looking behind. It’s like when you have just one sprint left, you just gut it out and go for it.”

Reach Karl Vogel at 473-7432 or kvogel@journalstar.com