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A broken leg suffered in a preseason game last August kept Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey out for the 2015 season.

That’s the short story. Pouncey told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler that he didn’t make it back to action in October, as originally planned, because he developed a staph infection in a surgical wound and ended up having seven surgeries and also battled an E. coli infection.

“It was scary,” Pouncey said. “I don’t want that on my worst enemy.”

Pouncey said he doesn’t place blame on anyone for his ordeal and complicated injuries.

“We all took the heat for it,” he said. “We had to figure out the best plan possible to get it right. No one really had that many infections like that [around here]. … I blame no one. We’re all professionals. I respect this organization for everything they did to get me through this.”

Pouncey took his normal reps with the first-team offense through the spring and said he’s feeling both healthy and anxious.

“It’s a humbling experience,” he said. “[It] shows you how much something is important in your life, and football is very important to me.”