Colts Being Cautious With Andrew Luck's Injured Calf Because of Kevin Durant
After watching NBA All-Star Kevin Durant tear his Achilles in the NBA finals in his first game back from a calf injury, the Colts and coach Frank Reich have decided to take a "cautious" approach with quarterback Andrew Luck, who is returning from his own calf injury.
Reich said he considered what happened with Durant in deciding to limit Luck's participation in Indianapolis's training camp.
"I was certainly thinking [about] it," Reich said after the team's first preseason practice Thursday, per ESPN's Mike Wells. "I didn't have that conversation with [general manager] Chris [Ballard] or any of our trainers. But that's this business. When you see something like that happen, you're like, 'Oh yeah, that's why you do what we're doing.' It was kind of like unspoken truth. That's why we're being cautious."
Luck missed the Colts' OTAs and minicamp after injuring his calf this spring, but the team has indicated his injury is serious. The Colts said Wednesday before camp that Luck would be limited for the first 7-10 days because the team doesn't want to rush the quarterback's return.
Durant injured his calf in Game 5 in a second-round playoff matchup against the Rockets. He returned for Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Raptors, when he tore his Achilles. The newly signed Nets star is expected to miss the entire 2019-20 season as he recovers from the surgery. In attempting to avoid a similar situation, Indianapolis only let Luck participate in the first part of individual drills in practice Thursday.
“The plan for him [Friday] would be for him to do 7-on-7,” Reich said. “We might just keep [him doing] 7-on-7 for a few days. But some of it its feedback, trusting Andrew. He’s doing a bunch of other stuff as well. But the next step is 7-on-7 and we’ll do that for how many [days] it takes. We have plenty of time to get a lot of good reps.”
