GRAMBLING – Grambling State senior safety Danquarian Fields had emergency surgery on his injured right leg Saturday night and will be out for the rest of the season, head coach Broderick Fobbs told the News-Star Sunday morning.

“I went to Shreveport last night. They airlifted him from Ruston to Shreveport,” Fobbs said. “They were concerned about the artery in the back of the leg because of the dislocation and the damage done to it. He had emergency surgery last night. They took a vein graft from his left groin and inserted it where the artery in the back of the leg was damage.”

Fields suffered the severe injury to his right leg on the last play of the first quarter in Saturday’s game at Louisiana Tech. The safety along with three of his teammates were charging to make a tackle on Tech running back Israel Tucker and his leg gave way. Due to the severity of the injury, Fobbs said the doctors told him he needed surgery to save his right leg.

“He does have feeling and has a pulse in his leg. They had to do that to save the leg because there was no blood flow,” Fobbs said. “So, it could’ve been that type of situation. But he’s stable. He’ll be in ICU for a couple of days just so they can monitor him. He was doing OK. At 3 o’clock this morning, they brought him out of surgery, let him recover and we got to see him, me and his mom, Benita Young. He’s not OK, but he’ll be OK.

“The good news after surgery, they believe he should make a full recovery. But he’s in for a long, long recovery process.

Only playing in two games this year, Field will redshirt the 2019 season but the timetable on his recovery in uncertain at this point. Whether he’ll be ready for the start of next year will depend on his rehab process.

“He’s a tough kid, mentally tough, but how is he going to recover mentally after seeing it and hearing about it. Only time will tell,” Fobbs said. “They don’t know how fast he’ll recover pulse-wise. We’re just glad he didn’t lose his leg and we’re glad he’ll have use of his leg and return all the way back to normal. But he’s got a lot of serious work ahead in order to get there.”

When Fields went down, Fobbs said Saturday after the game that losing their teammates stunned the team.

“That situation did a lot to us. That’s one of those situations you can’t practice. The feelings that come over you and then try to work in that feeling,” Fobbs said. “You got to find a way to have mental fortitude to dig yourself out of it and go through it.”

After the game Saturday, Louisiana Tech head football coach Skip Holtz and Tucker expressed their sympathies to Fields and his family and their hope he fully recovers.

“It’s hard. It happened on our sideline, I saw it immediately,” Holtz said. “I turned and yelled trainer and by the time I yelled it they were running onto the field. He’s a great player, he’s a great young man. I’ve been watching him on film and I’ve talked about the way he fills the alleys, he’s their quarterback on defense. He’s one of their best players on defense. You hate to see it ever to a player. There’s a lot of respect between these two teams.

“Anytime you see an injury you absolutely hate it. It’s painful to watch. It’s painful because you know how much hard work he’s put in to him being here, everything he’s overcome to get to where he is right now. Now, he’s looking at a road to recovery from injury.”

“You don’t wish that injury on anybody,” Tucker said. “We prayed for him in the locker room. We hope he’s doing well. That’s nothing you want to see.”

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