STARKVILLE, Miss. — A half-dozen black silver-dollar-sized discs are stuck to Nick Fitzgerald’s lower right leg and foot.
These are hot pads, assistant athletic trainer Thomas Callans says, Fitzgerald looking on from a cushioned training table. Callans gestures to the small, dark patches, each connected by a wire to an unseen contraption. These stimulate the muscles, forcing them to pulsate—step one in Fitzgerald’s 45-minute rehabilitation session on this June day.
For the past six months, this sprawling place has been Fitzgerald’s home. The Mississippi State sports medicine facility is tucked on the ground floor of the school’s five-year-old football building, and inside it are rows of training tables, pairs of whirlpools and dozens of healing tools.