Southeast football player Peter Lloyd remains positive while recovering from a leg injury that could end his career

Peter Lloyd remained on the ground at Tucker Stadium during the Southeast Missouri State football team's game against Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, Tennessee, on November 8, 2014.

The 5-foot-7, 166-pound receiver, who was in the midst of a breakout junior season at the time, immediately knew that something was wrong with his right leg.

The severity of the injury was unknown to his teammates at the time -- a gruesome fracture that required surgery -- and the large smile stretching across his face made them even more uncertain of how much pain he was in.

Those that are closest to Lloyd know that the smile rarely, if ever, leaves his face and his positivity and enthusiastic personality are what has made him successful for the Redhawks.

Now more than ever that exuberance is critical as he continues to progress from the season-ending injury, in hopes that it won't turn into a career-ending one.

"It was crazy. You wouldn't have even thought that it happened," said Southeast receiver Paul McRoberts, who is one of Lloyd's best friends. "I was on the back side of that play and I didn't see it happen, but he was smiling when I looked at him. He grabbed his leg, of course, just from the shock, but that man smiled from that day on until now. I couldn't do it and I know a lot of people that couldn't do it, so my hat's off to him. I love him to death, and I'm glad he's here."

Lloyd hasn't been able to fully participate in any of the Redhawks' spring practices, which is entering its final week and culminates with Saturday's annual spring game at 1 p.m.

His leg injury required a trip in an ambulance to a hospital in Cookeville, where he had surgery the same night his team suffered a 27-26 loss to the Golden Eagles.

He remembers the game and the injury vividly. He was excited when the play was called in the second quarter because it had just been implemented for him in practice the week prior to the game.

"He went down on me to cut me low, which I'm not used to getting cut low since I'm so short, so I tried to move out the way, but the dude who was behind me had his leg behind me and I just felt a jolt and I rolled over and I fumbled," Lloyd said, noting that coach Tom Matukewicz preaches ball security, but the coach was understanding of the mistake in that moment. " ... I rolled over and I instantly knew something was wrong, so I like looked at my leg and it was like hanging off. I just grabbed the bottom half of it and I just tried to hold it together and told the trainers to come on the field."

Lloyd, from Caruthersville, Missouri, knew that he wanted to call his mom, Brenda Lloyd, once he arrived at the hospital while he tried to figure out a treatment option -- it was either a cast, which he said was a 50-60 percent chance that it would heal completely, or to have a rod surgically placed, which was closer to 90 percent chance of success.

Lloyd chose the rod and was told by doctors that his recovery was estimated to take six months, but the timeline is still indefinite.

He returned to his home in Caruthersville after surgery where his mom was able to take care of him for a week.

Southeast Missouri State's Peter Lloyd cuts back during a run against Eastern Illinois last season at Houck Stadium. (Glenn Landberg)

"That's the one thing I loved about Coach Tuke. He was like, 'Whatever makes you feel comfortable, let me know,'" Lloyd said as a grin stretched across his face. "I was like, 'I want to go home to my momma.' I'm a country boy. I just love my momma and wanted to be around her."

Lloyd was back on the sidelines the next Saturday to watch his teammates defeat Austin Peay 42-7. Quarterback Kyle Snyder threw for a career-high 334 yards and tied the program's single-game record with five touchdown passes, all while wearing Lloyd's usual No. 7 jersey in honor of his injured teammate.

"I guess I'm going to keep the number since it's probably good luck since Kyle wore it and he sent it off right," Lloyd said.

Lloyd's junior season had been his best in his career. He joined the Redhawks and redshirted as a walk-on in 2011. He played in one game the next year and caught 20 passes for 233 yards and two touchdowns as a sophomore.

Last year he ended up the second leading receiver behind McRoberts.

He had 48 catches for 633 yards and three touchdowns, including a career-high 179 yards and two touchdowns in a win over UT Martin in the first game after McRoberts fractured his foot.

"I think about that game and that night a lot -- just the fact that I was right there and saw it happen," Matukewicz said of Lloyd's injury. "It was just so unfortunate because he had finally broken through. He'd been here for awhile and became our featured guy."

Lloyd's trying to get back to where he left off, but first must to finish healing, which has been an arduous process.

He's been in attendance at spring practices -- doing different conditioning drills, occasionally catching and passes -- with one goal in mind: to help his team in whatever way he can.

Southeast Missouri State wide receiver Peter Lloyd poses for a photo after practice Thursday at Houck Stadium. (Glenn Landberg)

"What I'm doing right now is I'm trying to come back and help my team because I feel like I'm not benefiting them being off the field besides getting healthy," Lloyd said. "But I'm benefiting them in the weight room -- I've gotten bigger -- and in the meeting room -- I'm meeting with Coach Salim [Powell] extra just to learn defenses more. The more I learn on the field, the faster I can play so that's just going to benefit me."

Lloyd's doing pool workouts and trains alongside his teammates in the weight room.

He had a fearful moment while jumping during a workout where he felt something pop in his leg, but X-rays showed no further damage. He also can't run at more than 90 percent of his full speed without a sharp pain going through his leg.

"I think he gets frustrated because he thinks it's better than it is and then he'll go out and try to do some things and it'll flare up on him," Matukewicz said. "But he's done a good job. Like we told him, 'There's a reason this happened, now go be a coach. You can't take the physical reps, but you can take the mental reps.'"

McRoberts said that Lloyd, a member of the team's player-voted leadership council, has begun to point things out to his fellow receivers on film and he can be seen talking to and instructing the younger wideouts during practices.

"A lot of people get injured and it's like, 'Aw, man I'm just mad. I don't want to talk with anybody.' But it's not like that with Peter," safety Eriq Moore, who was Lloyd's roommate as a freshman and a close friend, said. "It's really like you get to see a guy that's turning into like a big brother."

In addition to explaining what he sees from the sidelines and on film, Lloyd is trying to help the underclassmen receivers to harness their emotions, something that he struggled with when Matukewicz and staff first got on the field with the Redhawks last spring.

"He's been great since that spring, but he's got like anger management problems," Matukewicz said. "When I first got here we were going to make a movie about him. He's been able to control his emotions and not react so much to things that are happening around him and really it's not been a problem since."

Southeast Missouri State wide receiver Peter Lloyd stiff-arms Southeastern Louisiana's Xavier Roberson during the fourth quarter Saturday, Sept. 20, 2014 at Houck Stadium. (Fred Lynch)

While a smile is almost always plastered on his face, a feistier side comes out on the field and even when he's playing pool with his teammates in the Redhawks' locker room, according to Moore, who described him as "a little ball of fire" and "a little angry kid" with an extremely competitive nature.

"I've seen him transform tremendously because he went from a guy that didn't get so many plays, that they didn't even look at, to ... you'd think he was a mini Megatron or something like that," McRoberts said, referring to NFL receiver Calvin Johnson, Jr. "His heart's so big and he plays with tremendous confidence. I'm tremendously proud of him and everybody needs to be like him on the team."

Lloyd's focused on improving his strength and speed while he continues to rehabilitate from the injury as well as working on the mental side.

"I have to use my anger at the right time on the football field, like towards blocking," Lloyd said. "I want to become a smarter football player. Learning how to read coverages while I'm running and get people off me because that's just what you need if you want to play at any level higher than college."

Lloyd's future is unclear, and he's less than a month away from his 6-month recovery date that he was originally given when he suffered the injury. He and Matukewicz are hopeful that he'll be back on the field by the time the Redhawks' season opener at Missouri rolls around on Sept. 5.

"September 5 is a long time from now," Matukewicz said. "He's not as patient with himself as we want him to be and he just needs to take his time. I've had three -- with him being the third injury I've ever had in my career like this -- and I'm 1-1. One never played a game again and one did well, so it's that serious. I think he's doing well and we'll just see."