Penn State linebacker Sean Lee's younger sister knows his pain all too well.

Allie Lee had surgery in mid-January to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee.

Sean Lee will undergo a similar operation April 28 on his right knee.

"I feel terrible for Sean," Allie Lee said yesterday. "It just stinks. I know how I felt when I tore my ACL. His injury is on a much larger scale because it's dealing with football. He has an intense desire to go to the pros, and this will really hold him back.

"He'll get through it, though. He's strong."

Sean Lee, playing middle linebacker, sustained a season-ending injury Friday while blitzing quarterback Daryll Clark during a scrimmage.

He is facing nine months of rehabilitation and plans to draw on his sister's experience to help him cope with it. She is a junior soccer player at Upper St. Clair High School.

"She has been so tough, unbelievably tough," Lee said. "I think she's been tougher than all the guys here. She's done a great job with it. That will probably be the most valuable resource I will have -- being able to talk to her. It's kind of a camaraderie thing. We can go through it together."

"It's kind of an inspiration for me to see how well she's done."

Lee, speaking to reporters yesterday for the first time since his injury six days ago at Holuba Hall, still has a hard time believing he was hurt on such a routine play.

"I've gone over that about 20 million times in my head, what the surface was like," he said. "It was just a freak accident. I was just a little bit overextended, going after the quarterback, tried to cut with my right leg, and it just kind of went out from underneath me."

Lee, who will be a senior this fall, said he plans to stay close to the team during his rehab. There has been speculation he still could end up being a team captain.

"I'm going to try to help out in any way possible to help us win," he said.

Lee, projected as a potential first-team All-American and possible first-round NFL draft pick before his injury, said he took out an insurance policy earlier this year, "but it was more for career-ending injuries."

He doesn't consider his injury to be severe. He intends to redshirt this season and return as a fifth-year senior in 2009.

"I'm coming back," Lee said. "I want to play another game. I want to prepare for another game in the locker room. I want to play another game in this stadium. I can't see myself not doing it. I'm definitely going to try to be back."

As a freshman, Lee missed almost a month because of a partial tear of his medial collateral ligament.

He admits it will be tough being on the sideline when the Nittany Lions kick off their regular season Aug. 30 against Coastal Carolina at Beaver Stadium.

"Come that point, I'll bet you my knee is going to feel pretty good and feel like I can run a little bit," Lee said, laughing. "There's going to come a point where, maybe if we're struggling a little bit, I am going to want to run in the locker room and put pads on.

"But I know I can't. It's going to be extremely frustrating."

NOTES -- Penn State will appear in prime time three times this fall, with games against Illinois (Sept. 27), Wisconsin (Oct. 11) and Ohio State (Oct. 25) airing at 8 p.m. The Lions' homecoming game against Michigan (Oct. 18) has a 4:30 p.m. start. The games will be shown on ABC, ESPN or ESPN2. ... The annual Blue-White scrimmage is 2 p.m. Saturday. ... Former Penn State receiver Chris Bell, thrown off the team last week after he allegedly threatened teammate Devon Still with a knife inside a campus dining hall, waived his charges on to Centre County Court yesterday. Bell is charged with terroristic threats, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, disorderly conduct, harassment and summary offenses.