Injuries have been a part of football since the inception of the sport. Before preseason camps are over, most players can show off an array of bumps and bruises, while others boast anything from ankle sprains to broken bones, or sometimes worse.

A week before the SMU Mustangs headed to Honolulu to play in the school’s first bowl game in 25 years, one of their most promising young players suffered an injury that ended his season, almost certainly eliminated the chance of playing next season, and threatened his football future. Freshman offensive lineman Joey Fontana was engaged with backup nose tackle Jimmy Chase when he was hit in the back of his left leg, and crumpled to the ground. Fontana said he knew immediately that it was serious — very serious — so much so that he has declined to watch a tape of the play.

Joey Fontana is sitting out the spring semester, but said he plans to re-enroll in August ... and fully intends to be on the field in 2011 (photo by SMU athletics).

“It happened really quick,” Fontana said. “I didn’t watch it on film, because I didn’t want to see it. I was at center and was pass-blocking against Jimmy Chase, when I got hit from behind, by one of the guards, or maybe another defensive lineman.

“It tore up everything (in the knee) — I felt everything tearing. It was like someone took a shotgun and shot up my knee.”

Fontana said the knee hyperextended and dislocated. “It bent backward,” he said, “When I fell to the right, my lower leg stayed straight up. It was extremely painful.”

When players are injured in practice, team trainers are the first to arrive. In most cases, players are helped to the side of the field to rest or get an ankle re-taped. In the event of a more serious injury, players are helped inside to the training room, where they can be evaluated more thoroughly.

“They didn’t even bring me down to training room,” Fontana said. “They called the team doctor and put me straight into the van, and got me down to Baylor (Medical Center). They took an X-ray, but it was completely swollen. Then they started checking circulation issues right away.”

Further tests showed extensive structural damage in Fontana’s knee. He had torn his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), lateral collateral ligament (LCL), posterior collateral ligament (PCL), the meniscus and the posterolateral corner. In addition, he stretched the peroneal nerve, which runs down the leg, over the top of the foot and over the big toe; stretching the nerve resulted in Drop Foot Syndrome, a condition in which the muscles in the lower leg and/or foot are severely weakened, thereby making it difficult to raise the foot and toes.

“They said if (the peroneal nerve) was torn, there would be a really slim chance of getting movement in foot again,” Fontana said. “But the fact that it’s only stretched — they said that’s good news. It can come back, it will just take a while. They said it could take four to six months or more, and I still have no feeling over the top of my foot. But thank God it didn’t tear — it might take a while, but I know it will come back."

Fontana said that while he knew instantly that his injury was significant, he didn’t realize just how serious until the doctors put it in perspective for him.

“I knew it was torn, but I didn’t know how severe it was,” Fontana said, adding that he was told an injury like his is seen only “once every three to six years.”

IN THE COMFORT OF HOME

Fontana returned home to New Orleans for his surgery, which was performed Dec. 22 — 10 days after his injury — by one of the New Orleans Saints’ team doctors.

“His assistant has been with him for 16 years,” Fontana said, “and said it was the worst sports-related injury she’d ever seen.”

Despite initial predictions that the reconstruction of his knee would take multiple surgeries, the doctors were able to repair all of the injured ligaments during a single procedure. News reports about athletes who undergo surgery often include the word “successful” to describe the procedure, and Fontana said he was greatly encouraged when the Saints’ doctor used that word to describe the Fontana’s surgery.

“I was told he’s the best knee doctor in the area,” Fontana said. “When he said it went well … that really meant a lot.”

Fontana consulted with his family, his doctors, head coach June Jones and SMU football director of football operations Randy Ross, and chose to stay at home for the spring semester. He said that depending on his rehab, and the progress in the recovery of the injured nerve, he’d like to move back to Dallas during the summer to work out and be with his teammates. He plans to enroll again for the fall semester.

“I live on the fourth floor of my dorm,” he said. “What if there’s a fire alarm? They don’t want me to have to try to walk down those stairs. Or sometimes there are ice storms in Dallas — if I slipped, I could tear something again.”

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?

Fontana faces a long, arduous rehab schedule that would allow him to return to the field in no less than 12-16 months … if ever. He said it will be another month before he can even begin walking again.

“I don’t want to set my goals too high, because it’s such a long, slow rehab,” he said. “They tell me it will be another month before I begin walking, and eight weeks before I can walk without the assistance of crutches. So first I’ve got to get my range of motion back, and then get to where I can walk normally.

“Right now, I’m playing again. Until people tell me I can’t play again, that’s my goal, that’s my plan — to play again. Right now, my goal is to be back for spring practice in 2011. They’ve already ruled out next season completely, but I’m not going to give up. I’m going to try to play until doctors tell me to stop, and they’ll have to prove to me not play before I’ll stop — that’s how badly I want to play.”

For now, Fontana is finding other ways to spend what would have been his second semester of college.

“Not taking any school right now,” he said. “I wake up, go to therapy for an hour and a half or two hours, and come home. I try to relax there. Sometimes I go out with my mom, just to get out of the house. I go back to my old high school to see my friends play basketball. I’m starting guitar lessons — I figure, why not learn something new with all the time on my hands?

“But I would give anything to be sitting in class right now. I can’t wait to walk, and come up to Dallas. I’m planning to come up to visit sometime during spring ball. That will be hard, because I felt like I was going to get a lot of reps in practice, but that’s where I want to be.”

While Fontana acknowledges that watching — and not taking part in — spring workouts will be hard, it does nothing to affect his confidence in the end result of the long rehabilitation that awaits him.

“I will be back on the field as a Mustang,” Fontana said. “There is no doubt in my mind that I will suit up and strap that helmet on again. I can’t wait to get back.

“My 2011 season starts now.”