Miami’s Holt Out for Year but Happy He’ll Play Again

Miami Dolphins rookie fullback Leroy Holt will miss the 1990 season with a fractured vertebra at the base of his neck, but he says the injury could have been worse.

“I feel like a blessed man,” said the 5-10, 224-pounder from USC. “Doctors told me I would have been paralyzed if I was a little scrawny guy. I had a big (spinal-cord) canal. Thank God.”

The hairline fracture, between Holt’s fourth and fifth vertebra, is such that doctors Thursday assured him his career has not ended.

“I can play again,” he said. “I had prepared for the worst.”

Holt was injured July 31 when he clashed head-on with linebacker John Offerdahl during a drill.

For the next three months, Holt will wear a bulky collar-brace that extends up the back of his head.

The Dolphins’ fifth-round draft pick had earned praise from Coach Don Shula during training camp and appeared likely to make the final roster.