Aaron Donald plays one of the most physically demanding positions in football, battling in the trenches with 330-pound offensive linemen for 40-plus snaps per game. Donald is so powerful and quick that he doesn’t get pushed around in there, but playing defensive tackle and getting double-teamed most of the time can take a toll on one’s body.
That’s what makes it so amazing that Donald has never missed a single game in his career due to injury. He’s played 138 of a possible 140 regular-season games in his nine years, but the only two games he missed were in 2017 when he held out for a new contract.
Otherwise, he’s never been sidelined by an injury.
That could change this week after Donald hurt his ankle in Sunday’s loss to the Chiefs. The Rams are still finding out more info, but Sean McVay believes it’s a high ankle sprain, which is typically a multi-week injury.
“I think so, yeah. That’s what Reggie (Scott) had communicated,” McVay said of whether it’s a high ankle sprain. “Even when you go, like if you say it’s an X-ray, so many times even when I’ve had ankle injuries, you might have a clean X-ray, but sometimes the ligament damage is actually more significant than if you had actually broken your ankle. So that’s where you get those other scans, you consult with the doctors and make sure that obviously we’ll make the appropriate steps for Aaron in terms of how we move forward and what that means as far as his availability for this week and the weeks to come.”
Donald is as tough as they come, playing through torn rib cartilage against the Packers in the playoffs two years ago. He wasn’t nearly as effective as he typically is, but he wouldn’t let the injury keep him off the field.
This is an injury that will be incredibly difficult to play through, though. And with the Rams sitting at 3-8, they’re almost out of playoff contention already, so it’s not worth Donald risking further injury to play in a lost season.
He’s someone you always expect to see on the field, so if he misses Sunday’s game against the Seahawks (and time after that), it’ll be odd watching a Rams defense without No. 99 in the middle of it.
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