Washington Redskins quarterback Alex Smith suffered a devastating leg injury in Week 11 of the 2018 NFL season, and he underwent a total of 17 surgeries in the following weeks as he battled a severe infection that threatened his life.

During an appearance on ESPN’s Outside the Lines, Smith explained just how dire the situation was for him in the aftermath of his injury, and said he is “very much lucky to be alive.” Smith said that his initially surgery went perfectly – but things quickly took a turn when his infection was detected. During his recovery, Smith was forced to decide if he wanted to have his leg amputated.

“I was supposed to get discharged. The initial surgery went great, bone was lined up. I had several plates put in my leg and everything looked great. I was getting ready to go home, it was right before Thanksgiving. That’s when the initial infection was spotted, this is a few days after the surgery. I went septic. It was an infection that had gotten into my blood, and at that point I don’t remember much for a few weeks.”

Smith was fortunately able to pull through, and he’s looking forward to the challenge of trying to return to the NFL.

Via ESPN:

“There’s enough there that I can go out there and play … Knowing that, yeah, failure is a possibility … I need to prove that I can come back and play quarterback in the NFL, and if I can do that, that would be great and it’ll get figured out.”

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