GSU’s Fields undergoes surgery

Grambling State senior safety Danquarian Fields had emergency surgery on his injured right leg Saturday night and will miss the remainder of the 2019 football season after suffering the injury on the last play of the first quarter in Saturday’s 20-14 loss at Louisiana Tech.

On that play, Tech quarterback J’Mar Smith hit running back Israel Tucker on a four-yard swing pass.

But as Tucker was tackled, Fields was closing in and ended up in a collision with a teammate. The result was a gruesome injury that left Fields lying on the field in front of the Tech bench holding his right leg that had been twisted almost completely perpendicular to his body at the knee.

It happened right in front of Tech head coach Skip Holtz, who immediately yelled to his medical staff to rush to Fields’ aid. Tech players, GSU head coach Broderick Fobbs, and other GSU staff members circled Fields, showing their support as paramedics got Fields onto a stretcher while his Tiger teammates knelt across the field looking on, some in obvious prayer.

Fields was reportedly airlifted from Northern Louisiana Medical Center to a Shreveport hospital on Saturday night, where emergency surgery was performed to reestablish blood flow to his lower leg.

“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.”