A 'team', by definition, consists of more people than 'you.'

And, by the time a '#githelp team' is formed, it's to address patterns to which there are known solutions.

One of the many problems with Git, is that these solutions depend very, very much on the structure of the repo and the common practices of its users.

So, instead of executing random commands from the Internet, just ask. Please! Or, if there's truly nobody going to be around, give in and recreate the repo. You'll save yourself so much pain in the long run...