Bears TE Zach Miller opens up about injury: ‘Save my leg, please'

Over a month after tearing a major artery and receiving urgent surgery on his leg, Zach Miller opened up about his injury in an emotional interview.

"I just remember telling Doc, 'Save my leg, please,'" the tight end told Bears play-by-play announcer Jeff Joniak in a video shared by the team on Friday.

After the Oct. 29 injury when the popliteal artery in his left leg was damaged on a potential touchdown catch, Miller spent 23 days both in New Orleans and Chicago hospitals recovering from vascular surgery to save his leg from amputation. He left a Chicago-area hospital on Nov. 20.

“I knew it was pretty severe,” Miller said. “But I wasn’t in pain. I was actually calm. When Nate (Breske), our head trainer, got there, I remember looking at him, I was grabbing my facemask, and I told him, I said, ‘My knee is gone, bro.’ I could tell something was different.

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“I think just the first couple of days were the worst, just trying to understand it,” he added. “Once I realized, all right, worrying about that, wondering why, the what-ifs aren’t going to help. I’ve got to be able to accept it, and that was good.”

With a long recovery ahead of him, Miller said he has been overwhelmed with the support of his family, the entire Bears organization, and his followers on social media. He also mentioned his daily inspiration, Alex Ruiz, a high school player who suffered an injury similar to Miller's just weeks before on Oct. 6. Ruiz is facing amputation and considering a prosthetic foot after his medical diagnosis.

"If I didn’t have the care that I had, all that stuff, I could very easily be in his shoes, and I feel bad for him, a little bit of guilt, but he helps me,” Miller said of Ruiz. “He’s a special kid. He gets me through every day. He told me he’s not going to let it ruin his life, which is uplifting.

“If he can accept that, you can really get through everything.”