Nina Dobrev Hasn’t ‘Been on a Bicycle’ in 10 Months Since Her Dirt Bike Accident: ‘There’s a Mental Fear’ (Exclusive)

Nina Dobrev is still hesitant to get back on a bike nearly a year after her devastating accident.

On March 18, the Vampire Diaries alum, 36, spoke to PEOPLE and gave an update on her recovery from the dirt bike accident that left her hospitalized with multiple injuries to her knee in May 2024.

"I'm definitely getting there,” she says. “I'm about 10 months into recovery. I'd say typically for someone to be a hundred percent after this kind of a procedure takes about a year. So I'm a few months away from being in the clear and being allowed to do things like snowboarding again. Right in time for summer."

The actress — who partnered with SC Johnson for the Join Zuzu campaign to spread awareness about the dangers of plastic waste and importance of recycling — underwent surgery on her ACL, meniscus and fractured knee.

Despite her recovery going well, she admitted that she is still a little fearful when thinking about riding again.

"I'm just anxious to just feel fully normal and not feel like there's a mental fear. There's a little bit of trepidation trying things again," she explains. "I haven't been on a bicycle since the accident. The accident happened on a dirt bike, but I haven't even been able to get on a bicycle since. Which I wouldn't want to tackle soon."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. 

Dobrev first announced that she was recovering from a bike accident in an Instagram post in May 2024. The post had a photo of Dobrev next to a bicycle and another of her lying in a hospital bed. She captioned the post, "How it started vs how it’s going."

The Sick Girl star later told PEOPLE she tore her ACL, meniscus and fractured her tibial plateau while out for a dirt bike ride that landed her in the hospital.

Dobrev underwent surgery on her knee and said treatment involved a CPM Machine — short for continuous passive motion — which is a motorized device that “gently bends a joint back and forth to aid with recovery following a joint injury or surgery,” according to Verywell Health. 

“In case you’ve been wondering what I’ve been up to,” she wrote over a photo of herself in bed, posing with medical equipment. “Eat. Sleep. CPM Machine. Physical Therapy. Repeat. If you’ve had this injury you know what a CPM is…the rest of you won’t.” 

Unlike a lot of the exercises performed in physical therapy, a CPM machine — not the patient — does all the work. The goal is “to restore the range of motion of a joint to its pre-treatment level,” Verywell Health explains, “and prevent scarring that can result in a loss of joint mobility.”

“I think I'm doing pretty well,” Dobrev told PEOPLE in June 2024, adding that doctors “were pretty surprised” at how fast she was recovering. “I'm a little ahead of schedule in terms of healing, but it is still a very long process.”