It's hard not to miss the smile on Morgan Nicodin's face.

He's healthy again and it comes at a good time for Hilldale as it meets Wagoner in what has become a District 4A-4 “playoff” game at 7:30 tonight at Hornet Stadium.

"I'm glad to be back out there," he said.

The Hornets need his speed on the field in a must-win situation to have a chance at the playoffs. If Poteau (7-2, 4-2) beats Muldrow (4-5, 1-5) as expected, Hilldale would own the head-to-head tiebreaker with Wagoner for fourth place with the win.

Even with a Poteau loss, which creates a three-way tie, the Bulldogs would be eliminated by virtue of losses to both Poteau and Hilldale.

Nicodin’s just glad to have the opportunity to be involved.

He had to sit out six weeks this season — and it could've been longer — with a broken bone in his left foot. He hurt it while trying to plant the foot as he carried the ball on the second play of the second game of the season at Collinsville.

"I felt it pop," the 5-foot-8, 150-pound senior wide receiver-cornerback said. "I ran a couple of yards and it started hurting. The doctor on the sideline tried to wrap it up because he thought it was dislocated. It kept hurting and I knew it was something bad."

X-rays later showed the break. Nicodin faced the possibility of being out as much as eight weeks, which would've been the rest of this season.

”They told me if we made the playoffs, I would be able to play," he said.

But Nicodin wanted to return sooner.

He had surgery, including the insertion of a screw in the broken bone to speed up the healing. He went through the rehabilitation, which included light jogging. The pain in his foot was only surpassed by his sadness.

"It was tearing me up inside that I couldn't play," Nicodin said.

So he pushed it — a little.

After the rehabilitation, Nicodin returned to the doctor who did the surgery and got good news.