It’s late in the third quarter. The play was routine. Andre Durie had done it so many times before.

“I knew right away something was wrong,” he said.

July 5, 2015. The Argos are in Saskatchewan and the date is a significant one. It’s been exactly one year since Durie suffered a broken collarbone playing against the Riders. He ended up missing the remainder of the season.

His luck was bound to change this time around, but it didn’t.

“For something to happen on the same exact day against the same team at the same time of year was a weird omen.”

Durie stood up on the right side of the line and dropped back to protect his quarterback. But something was off.

“I went to step up to block someone who made a move outside of me to my right,” he said. “When we engaged and made impact, I tried to stabilize with my leg and it just buckled and gave out.”

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Durie knows a thing or two about knee injuries. His CFL career almost never came to be after a botched juke while playing for the York Lions resulted in nerve damage so severe doctors wondered if he’d walk normally again.

But this one felt different.

“The other leg injury was a nerve issue so it just went numb,” he said. “This time it slowly began to swell up and I started losing range of motion and knew something was wrong after that.”

His ACL was torn. Durie’s season was cut short after Week 2 once again. His teammates awarded him the game ball in an emotional locker room after winning the contest in overtime. They knew how much this means to him.

“Just heartbreaking, you know?” he said. “It was just a lot of frustration and I guess I wanted to separate from football for a while.”

The lengthy break from the gridiron wasn’t planned, but admittedly, it was timed well. His third child Harlow was born in April.

“I’ve always believed that things happen for a reason. Our daughter was just born and I had a chance to see those first steps, those first little babbles. Those things I would have missed playing the game. It’s been a great opportunity to be there for my daughter and to be there for all those little milestones.”

Durie became a full-time dad alongside his now-fiancee Cobie. He was also headed for his sixth surgery in eleven years. At 34-years-old, the window to move on was there.

“I figured I was done,” he said. “How did I do so much damage on such an innocent play? I wanted to wait until I started healing to make a decision.”

Shortly after the procedure, Durie looked at weighing his options: continue playing the game he loves, or moving towards a post-football career as a potential firefighter once his knee had properly healed.

He was surprised to learn just how well he was recovering.

“I talked to the doctor and he said the damage wasn’t as bad as the MRI showed,” he said. “A lot of the stuff healed very nicely. There are three ligament damages, the MCL, LCL and the ACL and they all healed pretty well. So he was pretty happy with what he saw.”

Something clicked in his head. His body could still handle football. Maybe he wasn’t finished after all.

Firefighting can wait. He knew it the moment he left the doctor’s office.

“The way it’s healing is telling me that my body is still recovering and adapting properly,” he said. “Coming back, I have a lot of productivity left in me and I can’t leave the game like that. It would eat at me forever and it’s something I’ll never allow.”

“Coming back, I have a lot of productivity

left in me and I can’t leave the game like that.”

News of his return garnered a warm response from friends and family. There was some caution, but Durie has put together an all-star career by overcoming the odds. He wasn’t supposed to play another snap after what happened at York. Adversity doesn’t phase him anymore.

“When life is challenging you, you have to give it everything you’ve got,” he said. “Jim (Barker) and Scott (Milanovich) are fully on board. I’ve known Jim since the York days and he knows how badly I want to do this, to accept this challenge, come back and make a statement.”

He’s as motivated as he’s ever been to play the game he loves, and confident in his return to the gridiron as the Argos get set for their first season at BMO Field.

“The guys know just how much I care for them and how much I care for the team and this city,” he said.