Nina Dobrev Is a 'Little Ahead of Schedule' in Her Recovery from Dirt Bike Accident, but 'There's Still a Ways to Go' (Exclusive)

The 'Vampire Diaries' alum tells PEOPLE the full recovery process could take up to a year

Nina Dobrev is making progress as she recovers from her dirt bike accident.

Speaking to PEOPLE at the Shiseido Blue Project 4th Annual Beach Clean-Up in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Wednesday, Aug. 7, the Vampire Diaries star, 35, gave an update on how she’s healing from the May incident.

Related: Nina Dobrev Takes First Steps Without Crutches 3 Months After Dirt Bike Accident: 'Most Brutal Recovery'

“I think I'm doing pretty well,” she says, 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.”

Dobrev tells PEOPLE she tore her ACL, meniscus and fractured her tibial plateau while out for a dirt bike ride that landed her in the hospital.

“I didn't realize it meant nine months to a year of recovery. So I'm only on month, maybe three and a half now,” she says.

“So there's still a ways to go. And a lot of times at this point in the healing process, people get re-injured because they feel fine. And so they start doing normal things. So I have to kind of remind myself that I'm still healing and there's still a little bit of time to go.”

The actress, who just returned from the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games with her boyfriend Shaun White said the former professional snowboarder and skateboarder, 37, has been “especially” supportive throughout her recovery journey.

“I mean, especially the Olympics,” Dobrev tells PEOPLE of his helpfulness during their trip, previously noting that it was her first time attending the Games.

“Like I said, I'd never been before, so I had no idea how much walking there is.”

Related: Nina Dobrev Recovering from Bike Accident: 'Eat. Sleep. CPM Machine. Physical Therapy. Repeat'

She adds, “All those streets are closed, so you have to walk from venue to venue and do all these things. And so he prearranged to have a wheelchair there so that I wouldn't have to walk as much. We had my canes and he was there by my side taking care of me the whole time.”

Though Dobrev and White briefly met in 2012, it wasn’t until 2019 that they were formally introduced. In April 2020, they went Instagram official.

The couple were seen leaving the Ritz Hotel in Paris on July 28, the same day she posted an Instagram update full of clever puns.

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“Glad I don’t KNEE’D those crutches anymore. They finally got me Christopher WALKen. Okay, dad jokes aside… ‘Brace yourself’ this is a long video and even longer caption. Last one 😂🫣,” she began as the lengthy caption to the post.

In the upload, Dobrev admitted that Olympian Lindsey Vonn opening up about her recent knee surgery inspired her to share her story.

After saying her accident seemed to be a sign from the universe “telling me to slow down,” the actress wrote, “Since I started walking & traveling a bit I’ve been feeling much more positive, I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel💫.”

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