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RALEIGH -- It seemed like a forbidding omen. With about 30 minutes remaining in N.C. State's first football practice, a golf cart came wheeling out of the Wolfpack's practice facility, with Toney Baker sitting it on the passenger's side, wearing a somber expression.

No need to panic, Baker explained. It was just a precautionary step in his long road back to full health.

"They just can't throw me into the fire," the junior running back said. "It was nothing at all."

It's understandable that the State coaches and training staff are being cautious with Baker. His recovery from a knee injury that ended his 2007 season after just one game has been an arduous one. In order to repair the damage to Baker's right knee, healthy cartilage had to be grown in a lab and then patched back into the knee. Then came months of rehabilitation, which kept Baker out of spring drills.

"I didn't have any great expectations for Toney." said Wolfpack coach Tom O'Brien. "It's been almost a year since Toney has been on the field. I thought he did well."

Baker understood the need to take things slow, but said he feels 100 percent recovered. It's a feeling that's been growing stronger ever since he began workouts during the summer, going through cutting drills to test the knee and pushing himself in the weight room.

"I knew I had a great shot to be the old Toney Baker again," he said.

But the old Toney Baker was the starting running back for State at the beginning of the 2007 season. Regaining that role this year will require more than Baker just proving to the coaches that he's healthy enough to go through a full practice. While Baker and fellow running back Andre Brown were out with injuries in 2007, Jamelle Eugene got his shot to start and ran with it.

"Jamelle's ahead because he's played and been around and went through the spring," O'Brien said. "He's starting off at the top of the heap and we'll see how it goes."

For Baker it's going slowly, but steadily.

"We're going to gradually work into this and build into it with him," O'Brien said. "I'm just happy to have him back out there."

INJURIES: Just being out there put Baker ahead of several other teammates, who were unable to practice because of injuries. Freshmen Mario Carter (tight end), Colby Jackson (fullback) and Terrell Manning (linebacker) are all out with knee injuries. Fellow freshman Gary Grant (defensive back) is out with a pelvis stress fracture.

Sophomore safety Javon Walker is recovering from a knee injury he suffered at the end of last season, but has yet to be medically cleared. Redshirt freshman Mike Golder Jr. (offensive line) has been medically disqualified from athletics because of his knee injury.

Contact Jim Young at 373-7016 or jim.young@news-record.com