In the last two years, injuries have done what no opposing defense had consistently managed until then, and slowed Georgia’s Keith Marshall on the football field.

But the senior tailback once considered to be the next in the long line of great Bulldogs ball carriers says he’s now fully healthy and back to being his old self.

“I’m fast,” he said, according the website DawgNation. “I feel as good as I ever felt at Georgia.”

It remains to be seen whether Marshall ever can showcase the kind of electrifying form that had Bulldogs fans giddy with his anticipation following his decision to come to Athens.

If he’s fully returned to form, he will help give Georgia one of the nation’s most lethal backfields, joining starter and Doak Walker Award nominee Nick Chubb and Sony Michel.

Marshall says he’s up to the task, even if it’s hardly how he envisioned closing out his collegiate career.

A former five-star player who was considered the nation’s top running back prospect overall by Scout.com following a stellar high school career in Raleigh, N.C., Marshall appeared immediately ready to take his place in Georgia lore. As a freshman in 2012, he totaled 757 yards and eight touchdowns on a robust average of 6.5 yards per carry, including a career-best 164 yards and two scores against Tennessee. He and Gurley finished 1-2 among Bulldogs rushers.

Most observers naturally assumed that more great things would follow and that Marshall would soon be dominating the headlines himself en route to lengthy NFL career of his own.

But fate had other ideas.

Marshall played just five games in 2013 before tearing the ACL in his right knee and missing the remainder of the season. His comeback attempt in 2014 came to a quick close after just three games another knee injury forced him to sit out the team’s final 10 games and helped open the door for Chubb’s breakout freshman season. Misfortune, however, wasn’t done with Marshall yet as he again found himself on the sidelines, this time with a hamstring injury that forced him to miss all of spring practice.

Marshall can only wonder about what might have been after watching his close friend Gurley hear his name called in the first round of this spring’s NFL Draft, but he hasn’t given up on his dream of playing on Sundays like his friend.

Now completely healthy for the first time in what seems like an eternity, he’s excited about reminding Georgia fans what all the fuss was about when he chose the Dawgs over the likes of Clemson, Florida, Notre Dame and South Carolina.

Marshall was a higher-rated prospect coming out of high school than the four-star Gurley.

Ten pounds slimmer than he was at the conclusion of last season, he stands ready to do whatever is asked of him while playing understudy to Chubb. Marshall used to be one of the fastest backs in the country, and his teammates at Georgia say that he appears fully rounded back into form now.

That’s great news for Marshall. Not so much for Georgia’s opponents this fall.