![]() The department of defense facility in San Antonio, Texas, specializes in the rehabilitation of military personnel with blast injuries, and Smith’s gruesome leg injury was indeed more reminiscent of something that would occur on a battlefield than a football field. Robin West called a friend, Johnny Owens, MPT and former Chief of Human Performance Optimization at the Center for the Intrepid. Smith spent months in a wheelchair, then on a walker, then on crutches, and finally, had an external fixator attached to his leg for eight months.īecause of the horrific nature of the injury, Washington Football Team physician Dr. Rectifying this situation required a total of 17 surgeries. Because bone cannot heal unless it’s covered, they used muscle tissue from his left quad and right gastrocnemius to create “flaps” to cover the bone. Saving his life was the top priority saving his leg would be secondary.Īs the bacterial infection crept up his leg, doctors were forced to repeatedly remove more and more of Smith’s muscle tissue, leaving the bones of his lower leg exposed. He suffered a compound, spiral fracture of his tibia and fibula, both of the long bones in the shin that means the fracture was caused by a twisting force and the bones also broke through the skin.Ī few days after the initial surgery to set Smith’s broken bones, he developed necrotizing fasciitis, a fast-moving infection commonly known as “flesh-eating bacteria.” His leg turned black. He fell at an awkward angle, and his right leg was caught underneath him. Watt and Kareem Jackson of the Houston Texans. On a rather innocuous play during Washington’s week 11 game in the 2018 season, Smith was sacked in the backfield by J.J. If you have no idea what Smith is talking about, here’s a refresher. Smith is back in the playoffs facing the Tom Brady’s Tampa Bay Bucs on Saturday.Īnd no, it’s not an easy matchup, but given everything Smith’s been through, can you really count him out? How It Started Somehow, the QB who could barely walk two years ago emerged as Washington’s starter in November, and sparked the Football Team to a 5-2 finish that landed them an improbable NFC East title. You’d never have known it watching Smith on the field this season. And there are definitely some crevices where it just doesn’t all line up perfectly.” “When they took my quad from my left leg to cover the bone in my right, they took skin with it, so in the middle of my shin I have a chunk of skin from my left thigh and, around that, a patchwork of skin grafts. “Basically, it’s like a skin quilt,” Smith says of his leg now. It is nothing compared to what his right leg still looks like underneath that other burgundy sock and ankle tape. Just two years ago, he suffered one of the most catastrophic leg injuries in sports history, so you’ll forgive him if he scoffs at this latest flesh wound. “I’ve never had one gush like that,” Smith said after the game.īut a little blood paled in comparison to what Smith had already returned from. Blood quickly soaked his burgundy sock and streamed over his white ankle tape. But the unlikely victory took a back seat to Smith’s bloody left leg.Īs Smith dropped back for a pass with the Redskins down 14-0 late in the second quarter, one of his own lineman inadvertently slashed him with a cleat. ![]() The legend of Alex Smith grew a bit more back in Week 13 of the NFL season as he quarterbacked the middling Washington Football Team to a 23-17, come-from-behind, upset victory over the previously undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers on Monday Night Football. ![]()
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