Newsome's goal: Return for UM's 2018 season opener

Michigan offensive lineman Grant Newsome has a goal.

Newsome, who suffered a devastating knee injury last season that will keep him from playing this year, responded to a tweet from coach Jim Harbaugh on Tuesday with his plan clearly indicated.

Harbaugh shared a video of Newsome running in what he described as “grueling rehab.” Harbaugh also wrote “a lesser man would have thrown in the towel many moons ago.”

Newsome responded on Twitter: “Thanks coach. 09/1/18 can’t come soon enough.”

That’s when the Wolverines open next season at Notre Dame.

While he did not go into detail about his surgeries and 38-day hospital stay, Newsome did share his story for the first time with reporters last April in Italy.

He said there was a 30-minute window that if University of Michigan Hospital doctors had not acted quickly, he could have lost his leg.

“The leg was dying,” Newsome told reporters in April. He said he was “minutes” from losing his leg.

His right knee was dislocated on a chop block during the Wisconsin game. Michigan’s orthopedic specialists immediately realized this was not just any knee injury.

“I was fortunate the doctors caught the severity of it early enough and they were able to get me into surgery that night and save my leg,” Newsome said. “Really fortunate with how everything happened.”

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