He is getting closer to being what he wants, being where he wants, and being able to do what he wants - again.
For Mark Herzlich, the spotlight will not be on the football field with the Boston College Eagles when they meet Florida State Saturday afternoon at Alumni Stadium.
It will be on his ongoing battle with Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. Herzlich’s story will be featured on ESPN’s “College GameDay,’’ which is coming to The Heights this week.
Herzlich said yesterday that he hopes the story concludes with a positive punctuation mark, one that indicates he can resume his life as a football player next season.
“I’ve got three chemo treatments left,’’ said Herzlich, who was diagnosed last spring. “Just once-a-week sessions, so it won’t be too bad at all.
“I talked to my doctor last week when I was home [in Pennsylvania] and he says he is 99 percent sure the cancer is gone. The only reason he is not 100 percent sure is that they didn’t do a biopsy. But from his experience and what he has seen on the MRI, it looks like it’s gone.’’
Herzlich, who has been as aggressive in battling the disease and promoting awareness of it as he was as BC’s middle linebacker and last year’s Atlantic Coast Conference Defensive Player of the Year, says the next step will be surgery to implant a rod in a bone near his thigh.
“There’s a two-week recovery period from that, which puts me at the beginning of December,’’ said Herzlich. “Then I will start jogging and running and try to get into football shape.’’
Herzlich says the process will be different from coming back from an injury.
“It will be like rehabbing from being fat and out of shape,’’ he said. “It’s not like I have to wait for something to heal. It’s just getting into game shape.’’
Herzlich will graduate in December but has another year of eligibility left.
Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com. 
