Football was ‘taken away so fast.’ How Clemson’s Justin Foster returned after year away
Justin Foster didn’t care about football anymore. His priority was on being able to breathe.
The Shelby, North Carolina native and redshirt shirt senior has had asthma for as long as he could remember, which made him high-risk for contracting COVID-19. When he did test positive for the virus at the beginning of the pandemic, his symptoms were severe.
Playing football again was the furthest thing from his mind at that time. Fast forward more than a year: Foster has worked his way back to not only loving football again, but being healthy enough to officially close out his college career.
Dealing with COVID-19
Despite being young, Foster experienced a worst-case symptom when he tested positive for COVID-19: respiratory complications.
Foster’s lungs became inflamed, which restricted his breathing. The worst part, however, was the uncertainty. Being that he contracted COVID early on, there was still a bevvy of unknowns and certainly no vaccines. After weighing his options and listening to his body, Foster made a decision.
“The last visit to MUSC, the doctor recommended me to hang up football and to just rest,” the Clemson defensive end said. “He didn’t know how long it would be. He didn’t know if it was going to be a couple months or just if it was going to linger on even longer, so with that being said, I just made the best decision for my health at the time. And just mentally, I wasn’t in a good place.
“Kind of sit around the whole year not knowing what was going on, struggling with my health, so it was just best for me to step away.”
Foster went home and worked at his father’s trucking company where he became a part-time mechanic, working on trucks and helping with dispatch, communicating with drivers. Being back around family in Shelby did bring Foster some stability, but he still wasn’t in the best head space.
A never-ending amount of questions floated through his mind about if or when he’d ever be 100% healthy again. Football and Clemson were the furthest things from his mind.
“I did not want to be around football,” he admitted. “I didn’t want to be at Clemson. I didn’t want to do anything just because of the situation I was going through and how I felt.”
While his workout regimen decreased because he physically couldn’t do it, Foster’s diet didn’t change. Listed at 275 pounds in 2020, he got up to 295, gaining 20 pounds in a short time period and making matters worse.
A ray of hope
Eventually, Foster switched from MUSC to Duke University’s medical center. During the first visit, his doctor gave him news he wasn’t sure he’d ever hear.
“The doctors at Duke recommended that I go back and play and said if I stick to the program they put me on and take my medicine that I would be able to play,” he explained.
Even though Foster had left Clemson, Dabo Swinney never forgot about him. The Tigers’ head football coach would check in every now and then just to see how his player — technically his former player — was doing.
It just so happened that the day Foster was walking out of the doctor’s office after being cleared for football, his phone rang.
It was Swinney.
“For me, it was kind of like a God wink, as coach Swinney calls it,” Foster said. “I mean right there, as soon as I walked out the door, it rung and it’s kind of crazy. I didn’t tell him then, I just thought about it for a little bit and then probably two weeks later or so, I called him and let him know.”
On May 5, Clemson announced Foster would be returning for the 2021 season after what turned out to be a one-year hiatus from football.
“It’s not often you get a call from a great player that you think is gone and he says he’s coming back, so just a great thing,” Swinney said at the time. “First of all, just really excited for Justin that he is feeling better with his health and his ability to train like he wants to train. And it’s great for Clemson because that gives us seven guys that have started back on our defensive line — five guys that have started at D-end and two that have started at D-tackle. He’s a great leader with great experience and a really talented football player.”
Walk before you jog
Foster began working his way back into an exercise schedule, starting with walking a mile at the local YMCA and in his neighborhood. Once he got the walking down without wheezing, he incorporated jogging with the walking before jogging a mile.
Then two miles.
Finally, five.
The next step was working on sprints to help with the bursts he needed in football. Foster still experienced setbacks, but he didn’t let that deter him.
“I think overall what helped me was just time and being patient but also starting to push myself,” he said. “The beginning of it, I just sat around and didn’t do anything, but I feel like if you fight against it, if it’s just walking every day, because that’s how I started.”
He also said getting the COVID-19 vaccine helped him feel better. Even when his doctors recommended it to him, the 6-foot-3, 275-pound defensive end was leery and held off on getting the shot for a while.
“I’m not against it at all. It was just new and I’m just like, I’ll let it work its course and I’ll get it eventually,” Foster explained. “Then one day, I was like, ‘It’s best if I go ahead and do this for myself. Protect myself for when I do get better.’ I’m not against it at all, it was just new at the time.”
The less he wheezed and had to take his inhaler, the better he realized he was becoming. In the past couple of weeks, he hasn’t had to take it at all. He’s lost almost 30 pounds and declared a recent practice the best he’s felt in a long time.
It also doesn’t hurt to be around his teammates, as well. The added camaraderie made working out for about 12 hours almost daily during the offseason and summer feel like child’s play.
“It was good just being around everybody, talking to everybody and just kind of catching up,” Foster said. “It was really good. I think it helped me out through everything.”
Reunited with football
As if the Tigers’ defensive line wasn’t loaded enough, adding Foster to the mix packs further punch when it comes to depth and talent. He hasn’t been named a starter and isn’t concerned about the depth chart.
He knows he’ll play at some point. And that’s good enough after the year he’s been through and thinking football would be a memory.
When asked what he thinks it’ll be like when he runs out on the field for the season opener Saturday, Foster’s eyes lit up and a slight smile formed on his face.
“Whew,” he said, before pausing to answer. “It’s going to be a big relief. I’ve worked ever since I was a kid playing football and just with it being taken away so fast and having an opportunity to come back and play, it’s just big. It means a lot to me.
“You really don’t know how much something means to you until it’s taken away. I’m having fun and I’m really enjoying it.”
Watch Clemson vs Georgia game
Who: Clemson Tigers (0-0) vs. Georgia Bulldogs (0-0)
Where: Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte
When: 7:30 pm Saturday, Sept. 4
TV: ABC
Line: Clemson by 3
This story was originally published August 27, 2021 at 6:00 AM.
