NFL quarterback Alex Smith recently said he is "very much lucky to be alive" after the ordeal he endured following the broken leg suffered in November of 2018. The Washington Redskins quarterback was tackled by J.J. Watt and Kareem Jackson in a game against the Houston Texans and sustained a compound fracture of his right tibia and a fractured right fibula.
How bad was the injury? Bone reportedly penetrated the skin. That always increases the risk of infection, and that's exactly what happened.
The infection was so bad that it became life-threatening and the quarterback faced the possibility of amputation. Forget the NFL, Smith was just fighting to survive.
Many surgeries and a lengthy rehab later, Smith still has his leg. Even more impressive is that Smith hasn't given up on football. He is gearing up for a return to the field, according to Matt Barrows of The Athletic, who recently spoke with the quarterback.
Barrows reports that Smith is getting ready to test himself in real football scenarios as he moves closer toward his goal of a comeback.
"Say what you want about Smith, but the dude is resilience personified," writes Barrows. "If a giant meteorite slammed into the earth, the only things remaining would be some blue-green algae, a few horseshoe crabs and Alex Smith."
There are a lot of people pulling for Smith to succeed, including many fans of the team that drafted him — the San Francisco 49ers.
"I need to prove that I can come back and play quarterback in the NFL," Smith told ESPN earlier this month, "and if I can do that, that would be great and it'll get figured out."
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