Indianapolis Colts’ quarterback Anthony Richardson spoke with reporters on Wednesday to address his back injury, which resulted in him not playing this past Sunday against the New York Giants.
“Feeling way better than last week, definitely,” Richardson said via the Indy Star. “Last week was a little rough, but we made it through, all glory to God.”
After taking on a full workload and playing all 62 offensive snaps against the Tennessee Titans in Week 16, Richardson popped up on last Wednesday’s injury report and was listed as a non-participant with back and foot injuries.
As the week progressed, Richardson’s practice status did not as he would also miss Thursday and Friday as well. Although initially listed as questionable, he was downgraded to out on Saturday, the day before the game.
Head coach Shane Steichen would tell reporters that Richardson was dealing with soreness and that it was more so his back than his foot that was keeping him out of practice.
However, through a team source, we would later learn that it was back spasms that Richardson was working through and as he detailed, pretty severe ones at that.
“Last week was tough,” said Richardson. “I couldn’t even stand up on Tuesday, I could barely even walk, was crawling around the house, but I’m standing now. If I can do everything in my power to get on the field, I’m going to do so. That was my plan last week, as well, but I could barely move.”
From the sounds of it, there wasn’t any one play against the Titans or a specific hit that triggered the injury. Richardson said that he has been dealing with “stuff like this” since eighth grade but it had never been this severe.
Richardson did undergo an MRI and said it’s a “disc thing that’s been there for a while,” and something last week set it off.
“I never viewed it as a problem,” said Richardson. “I just thought it was more so tightness from working hard, working a lot. It might be chronic, but there’s plenty of ways to prevent it from going on in the future. Now that I know what it is, I can find certain ways to stay out of certain positions, just make sure I’m healthy, 100%.”
Richardson said that the injury isn’t severe enough to require surgery.
“God willing, hopefully it never gets that severe. I just hope I can keep playing through the rest of my career with no problems.”
This past week was the third game that Richardson has missed this season due to injury and has now missed 16 games because of injuries in his first two NFL seasons.
The Colts held a walkthrough on Wednesday with Richardson estimated as a non-participant on the initial injury report. Steichen said he is “hopeful” that Richardson can play in the season finale against Jacksonville, but they will see how he progresses throughout the week.
“If I’m able to go out there with my teammates this week, it’d be just great to finish off the season with a victory going into the offseason, find some ways to fine-tune some things, get better as a player, and just get better for the organization,” Richardson said.