Alex Smith can afford to joke about his surgically repaired leg now, but it nearly cost him his life six years ago.
The former NFL quarterback suffered a spiral and compound fracture to his right tibia and fibula after getting tackled by J.J. Watt and Kareem Jackson during a game between the Washington Redskins and Houston Texans in 2018.
He would have surgery on the leg but was diagnosed with sepsis and was told he could lose it.
“[The] next thing I remember is waking up several weeks later faced with the decision of amputation or limb salvage at that point,” he told ESPN.
Smith made the choice to save his leg, going under the knife 17 times over the course of a few months.
He posted an image of his leg to his Instagram Story this weekend, joking that he should not have used sunscreen on it. Check the photo out below:
