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INDIANAPOLIS – On the day Andrew Luck returns to NFL regular season football, another layer has been added to the ongoing right shoulder story.
Luck confirmed earlier this week, to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, that he did injure his shoulder during a 2016 snowboarding accident. Such a story had been rumored, but never confirmed by the quarterback himself.
The Colts quarterback told Rapoport that the accident led to an injured AC joint in his right throwing shoulder, but the injury did not impact the severity of his already torn labrum, which occurred a few months earlier in a September 2015 game against the Titans.
“I’ve had a bunch of AC sprains, both left and right shoulder, and resolved that issue,” Luck said to Rapoport. “But the labrum has been my issue, was my issue, what I worked through, what I got surgery on.”
Luck does not believe the AC sprain affected his torn labrum. He was adamant it did not slow his rehab.
“I’ve seen more doctors than I can count on two hands over the past two or three years,” Luck said, “and the consensus — unanimous — is that the AC is not an issue, nor did it have an effect. The labrum is an issue.”
With the labrum and AC issue early in 2016, Luck elected not to have surgery that offseason.
He returned to football in 2016 (after also lacerating his kidney in November 2015) and had one of the best seasons of his career.
Luck threw for 4,240 yards, 31 touchdowns and had a career-high completion percentage of 63.5 during that ‘16 campaign.
But further shoulder complications throughout that season led to Luck finally having surgery in January 2017.
And that brings us to Sunday, when Luck makes his return to football for the first time since New Year’s Day 2017.
After Sunday’s loss, Luck had this to say about the snowboarding accident:
“That was an issue that I feel like we resolved non-surgically, rehabbed and I don’t think it (prolonged things),” Luck said.
Here is a timeline look at Luck’s right shoulder issues.
