Daniel Fells unlikely to lose foot but NFL career in peril

Daniel Fells’ team-mates paid tribute to him on Sunday night. Photograph: Getty Images

Doctors are optimistic that the New York Giants tight end Daniel Fells will not have to have his foot amputated – but reports say it is unlikely Fells will play professional football again.

Fells is in hospital in New York and will stay there for some time as he tries to fight off the MRSA infection he contracted in his foot two weeks ago.

Sources confirmed to ESPN that Fells has undergone five surgeries, with more scheduled, in an effort to stop the infection from spreading, but doctors are hopeful that antibiotics will continue the positive effect they have had over the past few days. One of the procedures involved doctors scraping the infection out of the bone, which has resulted in some bone loss.

Just two days ago, doctors were concerned they might have to amputate to stop the infection from spreading and save Fells’s life. Fells has been in the hospital since 2 October, when the infection was first discovered.

According to Ralph Vacchiano of the New York Daily News, a source close to Fells believes that the damage done to the foot is so serious that Fells’s “playing days are all but over.”

The Giants dedicated Sunday night’s victory over the 49ers to Fells, and the team presented him with a game ball via Skype from their Monday morning meeting. Fells tweeted the team good luck from his hospital bed on Sunday night, and Giants coach Tom Coughlin and others from the team have visited him in the hospital.

Coughlin was upbeat about Fells’ chances of recovery. He said he was told the tight end’s condition was improving, and that he had shown steady improvement after the infection had spread to a bone in his leg.

“I don’t think he’s out of the woods,” Coughlin said. “I didn’t say that. I think these three straight days are really a wonderful sign, but there are more tests to be done. And again, the response to the antibiotic is critical.”

According to NFL.com sources, Fells suffered a toe injury, then an ankle injury, and was given a cortisone shot as treatment. After a week of ankle and foot pain, Fells’s wife took him to the emergency room on October 2 with a 104F temperature, and doctors discovered that his ankle was infected with MRSA, a dangerous infection that is resistant to many antibiotics.