Asante Samuel Jr. checked into a Pittsburgh hospital in April for the first surgery of his life, so naturally, there were some nerves.

But Samuel actually had to deal with his nerves literally, in the form of a spinal fusion procedure performed by Dr. David Okonkwo, a Pitt neurosurgeon who doubles as one of the Steelers’ team physicians. Now Samuel — who was cleared to return to football in recent weeks — is back in the same city where he put his NFL career on hold, trying to get it back on track again on the Steelers practice squad.

“He was a well-respected doctor and one of the best, so that’s who I wanted to get it done by,” Samuel said Wednesday after his first practice with his new team. “Day by day, I didn’t really look too far ahead. I just wanted to attack the rehab and come back

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