The mystery of Andrew Luck’s injury continues to grow by the day. In a conference call with Colts reporters Tuesday night, Colts general manager Chris Ballard revealed Luck’s calf strain that has kept him out of camp is now a high-ankle issue. Ballard revealed Luck will not play in the preseason, as he will use the remaining four weeks to rehab the ankle and get ready for the start of the regular season.
Ballard told reporters he believes the ankle injury has stemmed from the franchise quarterback having ankle issues for a few seasons. This cumulative effect was exacerbated by the calf strain that kept Luck out of practice the majority of the offseason, per George Bremer of CNHI Sports Indiana. The issue for luck is side-to-side movement and moving around in the pocket.
This comes on the heels of Colts owner Jim Irsay saying luck is battling a “small little bone” injury earlier this week.
“I know everyone’s having their questions about Andrew, and that sort of thing, but I really feel very confident that he’s going to find his way through this thing,” Irsay told SiriusXM NFL Radio. “After the Kevin (Durant) thing and everything, everyone’s erring on the side of caution, but quite frankly, this is not even in the Achilles tendon. This is in another area, it’s a bone — I’m not good at these things — it’s a small little bone, and (former Colts) Ryan Diem had it, and Raheem Brock had it, the trainers told me. And he’s doing very well, very excited, he’s a married man, baby on the way, and he couldn’t be more excited for the season.”
The calf and ankle injuries Luck is battling feels similar to 2017 when Luck underwent shoulder surgery to fix a recurring issue. Luck ended up missing the entire season and did not throw a football again until the summer of 2018.
Ballard is not worried over Luck potentially missing the season, but his comments also weren’t reassuring.
“Look this is not 2017,” Ballard said, via Zak Keefer of the Athletic. “I’ve thought about this a lot when I first came in the door, one of the first things we talked about when building a team that’s wasn’t going to be about just one guy. I understand the importance of Andrew Luck. This guy is one of the top-five quarterbacks in the league, but we also got another quarterback we like in Jacoby Brissett. So to me that’s part of building a team. You got to be able to handle when things don’t go how you planned them to be.”
