Ole Miss’ Fadol Brown was in Texas on Friday for a last-ditch treatment on his broken foot

That Fadol Brown missed practice on Friday isn’t news—the Ole Miss defensive end hasn’t practiced with the team since last November, when he first suffered a stress fracture in his foot. What is news is that he was in Texas undergoing a last-ditch treatment in the hopes of getting on the field against Florida State on Labor Day.

“(The doctors) believe in a couple of days you should know whether it’s going to be helpful or not,” Freeze told reporters after practice.

One interesting revelation from Freeze was that Brown has undergone two surgeries on his left foot. We knew Brown went under the knife in December for a procedure that kept him out of the Sugar Bowl, but this is the first mention of a followup. Freeze didn’t say when or why that happened, just that it was for the same injury.

Something else we learned on Friday: there’s no lingering structural damage in the foot.

“We trust the doctors that have done it. They do it all the time,” Freeze said. “They feel the structure’s fine. Now, it’s a matter of can he play with whatever pain there is.”

Structural integrity is good news—it likely means there’s a low risk of re-injury. Still, this is obviously something that’s gonna take more than pain pills, athletic tape and a walk-it-off attitude to fix.

The Rebs need this treatment in Texas to pay dividends, otherwise they face the most explosive running backs in the country without one of their sturdiest run defenders.