Martin Hyppolite knows his career and perhaps even his life could have come to an end in that late February car accident in Durham, N.H. as he was a passenger in a car involved in a fatal accident.

The UConn senior running back's hip was injured badly enough that he believed he would need surgery and when the doctors met with him in the days and weeks after the accident they braced him for the possibility that the hip injury could prevent his return to the football field.

A little more than five months later Hyppolite is not only back on the gridiron, he has arguably been the most impressive of the UConn running backs in the first five days of preseason practice.

"I was really worried because some doctors said you will be facing an uphill battle," Hyppolite said. "Another player I played with, he graduated when I was a freshman and it ended his career. They were saying that it was unlikely that you were going to play football. I knew that what was going to happen is God’s plan and I pray every night. I knew somehow I was going to heal better, I always heal well and I was going to be back on the field

"I got a second chance at life and it definitely makes me appreciate my family and my second family here a lot more. Being able to play football again, it is a blessing."

Hyppolite missed all of spring practice and shortly before the end of the spring semester he was told that his injured hip had healed well enough so that he would not need to undergo surgery.

"I went through a lot of pool treatment when I first started getting back but it wasn’t as bad as an ACL and every few weeks I had to meet with the doctor and surgeon," Hyppolite said. "Every time I met with them it was good news. At first he was saying that I definitely had to get surgery and then it was ‘you don’t have to get surgery.’ Now I am back out here and it feels good. "