INDIANAPOLIS -- Working out can be a daunting thing for NFL prospects this time of year, but not for one Patriots target.

Houston cornerback DJ Hayden almost died after what he calls a "freak accident" during a November practice, and though he won't be working out at the combine, training over the course of his recovery has made him happier than he'd been in months. 

"The first sweat I broke, I almost broke down and cried," he said Sunday. "I was just thankful that I was doing what I was doing."

After leading Conference USA with four interceptions through the first nine games of last season, Hayden went for an underthrown ball during practice and collided with a safety, whose knee went into Hayden's chest. At first, Hayden thought he had gotten the wind knocked out of him, but felt like he "wasn't breathing right." Taking no chances in the peculiar situation, the team doctor took him inside. 

"He's asking me all these questions, and I'm, like, real cold. I'm looking around and I'm getting real sleepy, and my left eye just goes pitch black," Hayden said. "I can't see out of it, I can see a little bit out of my right eye and I'm just praying, like, 'Lord, let me get out of this one.'"

Hayden was rushed to the hospital, where they scanned his stomach and found there was a lot of blood in his abdomen. The doctor needed to cut into him.

"I was like, 'Alright, you can cut me open, just don't mess my abs up,'" Hayden recalled. 

After cutting through his sternum, the doctors found that he had torn his inferior vena cava, the major vein that connects the blood to the lower half of the body. 

"The way your heart is set up, it's in a sack," Hayden explained. "It was a perfect hit because it punched the sack enough for the blood to bleed out, because if all the blood would have stayed in the sack, it would have exploded.”

Hayden didn't know what was happening to him at first when he was taken off the field. He didn't know if he was dying, and he didn't know just how close he came until he woke up after the doctors had stitched up the vein. He'd made the news for surviving an injury usually suffered in high-speed car wrecks, one that carries a 95-percent fatality rate. 

"I'm looking at my scar, I'm looking at all these bandages and all these machines I'm hooked up to," he said. "I'm like, 'Wow I am truly blessed.'" 

Because of how veins heal, Hayden doesn't carry a risk of suffering the same injury again. The biggest part of the recovery process, he says, has been the healing of the sternum, which he says is "almost 100 percent." 

After the surgery, Hayden dealt with more than he could have ever seen coming. Because of the sternum everything was painful. He couldn't sit up or lift his arms. He lost about 25 pounds in dropping down to 167 (he now weighs 191), and, thinking his football career was over, he was depressed. He couldn’t stop watching the video of the collision, saying he watched it at least 100 times in the hospital, maybe 200.

The doctor told him he'd be better, and that if all went well, he'd be able to play football again in three or four months. 

"When I heard that, I was like, 'Alright, I've got hope.' But there was always that doubt in my mind," he said. "I was always questioning myself, like why'd this have to happen to me? I even questioned God."

A "real long talk" with team chaplain Mikado Hinson changed that, motivating Hayden to get his mind right and work his way back. 

"He brought my spirits up so high," Hayden said. "Without him, I probably wouldn't be here today."

Since then, Hayden has been able to get back to working out and says he can now run full speed. He isn't working out for teams in Indianapolis, but he'll be ready to showcase everything at his March 18 Pro Day. 

Given what he brings as a prospect, there should be little surprise that the Patriots have expressed an interest in him, as the team met with him this weekend. The 5-foot-11, 191-pounder has good size and speed for the position and is viewed as a highly instinctive corner who jumps routes at the right time and is very good against the run. Though he played less than two seasons of FBS ball after transferring from Navarro Junior College, Hayden has extensive experience in both zone and man coverage and has played in both a 3-4 and a 4-3 at the college level. 

The Pats are just one of about 20 teams with whom Hayden has met, and he said that though teams talk with him just how lucky he is to be alive, he doesn't believe the injury is a red flag going forward. The common message that he's gotten is, "If you're good to play, you're good to play."

Once he does get to play, he'll have a different perspective. A hard-worker who says he's always been well-behaved, Hayden says his experience has taught him that he has more to give than he thought he did when he was rising up draft boards prior to his injury. 

"If I'm going to play a game, I'm going to ball," he said. "I'm going to play my hardest the whole game. If that was my time to end, I don't feel like I finished my career off the way I wanted to, because I don't feel like I played good the last game I played. I just want another opportunity to play another game and do what I can do."