By Allen Cameron
Calgary Herald

The toughest part of J’Micheal Deane’s road back to the Calgary Stampeders’ lineup has nothing to do with hard, physical work.

Don’t misunderstand: Deane is doing the hard work, but he’s actually relishing it — which is understandable, considering the grotesquely broken fibula he suffered back on Oct. 15 at the Rogers Centre might have ended his career once upon a time.

But with two weeks to go before the six-foot-five, 312-pound offensive lineman steps onto the field at McMahon Stadium for the Stampeders’ rookie camp (he can train with the rookies because of his injury situation), the tough part of this final push to full health involves simply sitting back and toughing it out as a therapist works on his lower leg with a steel bar.

“It’s just painful,” said the 26-year-old Michigan State product, shaking his head. “You just have to sit there and grit your teeth. That’s the worst part of it all.”

The procedure is designed to break down the scar tissue left over from the trauma Deane suffered last October when his promising rookie season was suddenly, and shockingly, cut short when quarterback Drew Tate rolled onto the back of Deane’s right leg while rushing for a first down.

Deane underwent surgery and has a metal plate and six screws attached in his leg to give stability and strength to the healed bones.

Seven months after the injury, Deane is nearly fully recovered, and will be, barring a setback in the next 14 days, a full — and eager — participant in training camp.

“It feels good,” he said on Tuesday. “I still have some treatment to do, but its definitely coming along. It gets sore. But it doesn’t stay as sore as long as it used to. The pain starts to go away almost instantly. But it’s still a work in progress. I have another two weeks; basically, it’s just about breaking down the scar tissue that’s still in there. That’s the main problem. But Patty (Stamps director of medical services Pat Clayton) said I’m ahead of schedule; I was walking on it before I was supposed to be walking on it; I guess I just got tired of using the crutches and said, ‘Whatever.’ It didn’t cause any damage.”

Small wonder that Deane was able to hasten the healing process; he took much the same approach to his pro career. After the Stamps selected him in the 2010 CFL draft, he made an instant impact when he joined the team last year, filling in for the injured Dimitri Tsoumpas as the starting right guard for the first two games of the season.

After that he was shifted over to the defensive line midway through the season and started two more games as a defensive tackle.

But the promising year went south with the injury, and after surgery was completed and once he finally shed the despised walking cast during the Christmas holidays, Deane started the rehab process in earnest.

“It’s definitely a grind, and you always have to stay on top of it,” he said. “I need the ankle to work. I need the leg to work so I can play. So I have to keep grinding out to get it better. When it first happens, it goes through your mind: ‘Man, I might not be able to play football anymore.’ But everybody tells you that this injury happens all the time and a lot of guys have come back from it. You just have to go through the process of recovery.”

Both physical and mental, of course, and often times the mental side of it can be tougher.

“You have to move on from it,” nodded Deane, who, in between rehab and working out, was selling computers at the Northland Village Future Shop. “If I keep a thought like that in my head, like, ‘Oh, I don’t ever want this to happen again,’ or, ‘Please don’t happen, please don’t happen,’ you’ll be playing slower and that can cause another injury. You can’t play scared.”

Deane’s return to active duty will be one of the feel-good stories when the Stamps open camp (their main camp kicks off on June 3 at McMahon Stadium), but a happy ending is hardly guaranteed. Deane has to prove that he’s still a contributor at the CFL level, and he understands that the sympathy factor simply won’t make a difference.

“You can’t have excuses,” he said. “The coach isn’t going to say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, your ankle’s hurt. Take it easy for the whole season and we’ll give you a paycheque.’ It doesn’t work that way. There’s always other bodies, there’s always somebody coming up to take your spot.

“Basically, it feels like I’m starting over. I have to re-prove myself.

“I have to prove it to all of the CFL that I can still play. And more so to myself — just to get over that hurdle and get back to being the player I was, and then get better from there.”