Missouri wide receiver Danario Alexander ducked into the McElroy Sports Medicine Center on Monday with the enthusiasm of an ex-con visiting his former prison cell.

Nick King photo

Missouri wide receiver Danario Alexander caught eight passes for 117 yards against Kansas last year but suffered a serious knee injury the next week in the Big 12 championship game. He will make his 2008 debut Saturday against Nevada on Faurot Field.

"Home away from home," he muttered with a half laugh, half sigh.

He was looking for team trainer Rex Sharp, the friendliest face a Missouri player would just as soon never know well. But these two get along like old pals, a reflection of Alexander’s genuine cheerful vibe and his unfortunate history with injuries. The latest landed him under Sharp’s care the last nine months while he recovered from not one but two reconstructive knee surgeries - procedures that used to sideline athletes for at least a year.

But not at Missouri and especially not for Alexander, who’s expected to make his season debut Saturday, three weeks ahead of his original target date of return.

"That is a rare find, to be able to focus yourself on getting as healthy as you can as quick as you can," Sharp said. "I’m so happy for him."

"Sometimes you never know what you have until you get your back thrown against a wall," said Gary Pinkel, whose No. 6 Tigers (2-0) play host to Nevada (1-1) on Saturday. "He’s had it thrown a couple times. He just fought through it and became more determined than ever."

On Dec. 1, during the Big 12 Conference championship game against Oklahoma, Alexander shredded the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee while ripping off a 19-yard run. He also stretched the arcuate ligament complex and tore his meniscus. Team surgeon Pat Smith went to work on Alexander a few days later and formed a graft from a cadaver to restore the ligament. Having already missed three September games with a broken wrist, Alexander sat out the Cotton Bowl, too.

Like so many MU athletes before him, Alexander recovered swiftly, nearly in time to suit up for the Black and Gold Game on April 19. But Sharp and Smith played it safe and held Alexander out.

"He was physically ready to play, so we’re going into the summer thinking we’ll be ready to go," Sharp said. "Then the rug’s pulled out from under him again."

During a routine checkup in June, Alexander mentioned some tightness and discomfort near where his knee had been fixed. An MRI revealed something extraordinarily rare - the graft had torn.

How? When? Why?

The questions were impossible to answer and pointless to pursue, Sharp said.

"We have racked our brains," he added. "This may be the first one in the 12 years that I’ve been here that’s retorn."

The setback required a near identical surgery as the original injury. This time, Smith repaired the ligament using a piece of Alexander’s patellar tendon.

"I had to get something out of my body to help it out," Alexander said.

Next, he had to reacquaint himself with the training room and double down on another treatment program, this time braced with the understanding of what another comeback would require.

"After it happens, you have to flush it out, all the feeling sorry for yourself," Alexander said, "because you know what you’ve got to do to come back."

While his teammates gathered for summer practices on Faurot Field, Alexander launched himself back into the rehab grind. To get through each session, he’d envision a reward.

"You just see yourself catching a ball over somebody or a game-winning touchdown or something like that," said Alexander, who caught 37 passes for 417 yards and two touchdowns in 10 games last year. "That helped a lot."

For advice, he turned to fellow receiver Jeremy Maclin, who underwent a similar surgery in August 2006 and shattered records a season later. After his surgery, Maclin came back faster and more explosive, his knee stronger than before.

"I’m not trying to put myself in his place," Maclin said, "but if you look at a guy like me who had the same surgery, it kind of motivates you knowing you can come back and do the same kind of things."

Smith and Sharp had initially circled Oct. 4 as Alexander’s return date. That’s when Missouri opens Big 12 Conference play at Nebraska. Sharp figured that date was aggressive but reasonable.

"We don’t really have a cookbook rehab plan," he said. "The plan I have for rehab is tailored to everyone individually. There’s nothing written down. You look at the sport, and you look at the guy. And we challenged him enough that he was making great progress."

When players gathered for preseason physicals on Aug. 3, Alexander met with Sharp and Smith to revisit the return date conversation. Alexander hinted at playing against Buffalo, MU’s last nonconference game on Sept. 20.

Midway through preseason camp, Alexander was running patterns and catching passes - not quite at full speed but fast enough to conceivably move up his return date.

"Then," Sharp said, "he asked about the Nevada game."

It appears Alexander will get his wish. He practiced in full pads yesterday, free of the red pullover players wear when coming back from injury. He won’t start but could get some backup snaps behind X-receiver Jared Perry.

In June, Alexander said his knee would let him know when it would be OK to return. He knew he couldn’t listen to his head and certainly not his heart. His twice-restructured knee would have the final say.

Three months since surgery No. 2, Alexander’s knee is whispering words of hope.

"It’s telling me that I can do it like the old Danario would," Alexander said. "Probably not as explosive early on. I probably have to play a few games. But it’s telling me I’m ready to play."

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