Joe Burrow Gets Honest About His Recovery From Multiple Serious Injuries

Joe Burrow is no stranger to severe injuries in his NFL career. He suffered a torn ACL in his rookie campaign, tore a ligament in his wrist in 2023, and suffered a turf toe injury that required surgery last year. The largest hurdle he has had to overcome with each injury however, are the mental gymnastics that occurred with each one.

Burrow confirmed this week that each injury presented larger mental hurdles than the injury itself. He stated that while his knee injury in his rookie campaign posed less concern mentally, and that the injuries to his wrist and toe are what caused the most anxiety mentally.

"It's always more mental for sure, I tore my ACL in 2020 in my rookie season and that one was tough for sure, but I didn't know any better, I was young and had never experienced anything like that before, so you're just putting one foot in front of the other," Burrow said of his knee injury. "In 2023 I hurt my wrist, and then last year I hurt my toe, and then its like 'oh come on man what's going on' because I put so much work into this."

Injuries Have Made Burrow Stronger

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) throws in the first quarter of the NFL Week 8 game between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Tennessee Titans at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Burrow added to his thoughts in a press conference later and said that the mental process is always different with every injury. He said he allows himself to feel emotions through anger and sadness and has quickly bounced back from those feelings, adding that once he has done so, the rehab process is easy.

"The mental process is always different with every injury that you have, the first thing is I'm always just really mad and sad, I let myself feel those emotions and then pretty quickly you just get back to work," Burrow said on his mental process. "I love what I do, if you love what you do and you wanna be better every single day, the rehab process is easy once you can flip your mind to just try and get better and try and to get back there with your guys."

He explained that he is fortunate to have improved with each injury, pointing to the rehab process and that it intensely works different muscles that do not see normal activity.

"Fortunately I've been able to improve after every injury I've had, and I think with the rehab process, a lot of times those exercises that you're doing hit muscles that you haven't quite worked that intensely as you are at the time, and that can help you come back better and stronger," Burrow said.

Check out Burrow's full comments about his injury history here.

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