Low GPA: Explain Circumstances on Cover Letter?

A few other threads about this, but didn't see anything I thought was specific enough, so wanted to get some thoughts.

Should I include a short explanation of my low (3.3) GPA on a cover letter? Sophomore year had a sports injury playing for my school's NCAA team. Long story short, tore a bunch of stuff, had surgery, was on heavy pain killers for an extended period, and had lengthy daily PT sessions (3 hrs in beginning, 1 later on, but for almost entire year) on top of academics, continued attendance of team games/practices/conditioning, and student gov position. Also missed a bunch of school for time home getting surgery and frequent follow-up appointments. Junior year had a 3.6 and 3.7 each semester so significant increase.

Seems legit to me, but also don't want to come across as making excuses. I've talked about this in interviews before and it's seemed like it really helped my case, so thought maybe including it in cover letter would be beneficial in just getting interviews.

 

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