Saying that he wanted to “show appreciation to all the Georgia people who have supported me,” Southern University’s Devon Gales is planning a return Saturday night to the field where he was grievously injured nearly two months ago.

Gales and a large contingent of his family are looking to make the trip from Atlanta’s Shepherd Center to Athens for Saturday night’s Georgia-Georgia Southern game. On Sept. 26, the Southern sophomore was paralyzed following a collision with Bulldogs kicker Marshall Morgan on a kickoff return.

The outpouring of support from the Bulldogs program and their fan base has converted Gales to a fan himself.

The decision to attend the Bulldogs final home game of the season followed a long discussion with family. “We talked about it,” Tish Gales, Devon’s stepmother, said. “I asked him, ‘Devon are you going to be able to go there? I don’t want it to get to you thinking about the last time you were on the field.’

“But he said it wouldn’t bother him.”

Gales had been lobbying to go to New Orleans for Southern’s final game of the season, the Bayou Classic vs. Grambling on Nov. 28. But doctors vetoed that idea, saying that trip would be too strenuous at this stage of his rehab.

An in-depth look at how Gales and those around him have dealt with the devastating injury will appear in Sunday’s Atlanta Journal-Constitution and on Dawgnation.com.