Andrew Luck’s secret pain: Timeline of an injury the Colts hid for more than a year

Updated on 6.12.18

Andrew Luck is throwing a college football, which is pretty close to an NFL football. Read on for the painful backstory of his original injury almost three years ago...

Andrew Luck hurt his throwing shoulder early in the 2015 season, but it wasn't until 15 months later — January 2017 — that fans learned just how badly he had been hurt, and how long he had played with the injury. 

As Luck continues to try to complete his recovery in 2018, here’s the timeline of his painful 2015 and 2016 seasons, and where he stands now.

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2015

Sept. 27: Luck's sideline jump for joy reveals relief in the Indianapolis Colts' first victory of the season, a  win against the Titans that avoids an 0-3 start. But the game — Luck is sacked three times and hit four others — comes with a price.  

IndyStar sports columnist Gregg Doyel saw signs of trouble in the locker room after the game:

Andrew Luck was struggling to put on his shirt. His pants weren’t going on much easier, either. Didn’t look like he could bend. Didn’t look like he couldbreathe. Luck was hurting and he was exhausted, and finally an Indianapolis Colts security official was at his side, helping him pack his stuff and get out of this locker room at Nissan Stadium, where it didn’t feel like a team had just won.

Sept. 30: Three days later, Luck's throwing shoulder is sore.  He does more watching than throwing during practice. “He’s day-to-day,” coach Chuck Pagano says. Luck won’t divulge many specifics — including whether he had an MRI or which play led to the injury. 

Oct. 2: Who will the quarterback be on Sunday? “It’s Andrew Luck,” Pagano says two days before the next game. “If I was going to bet on anybody, it’d be that guy.”

Oct. 4: At noon Saturday, the Colts confirm Luck is inactive for Sunday's game.

Backup quarterback Matt Hasselbeck — fighting off the effects of a bad burrito — starts against the Jaguars, breaking Luck's streak of 57 consecutive starts to begin his career.

Oct. 5-6: Luck works out with the team both days, and took the majority of first-team snaps on the second day as Hasselbeck sat out practice with the burrito-induced illness. Luck and Hasselbeck both are listed as questionable for the game. Hasselbeck makes it clear he expects No. 12 to play. ​​​​​Luck tells the media: "I'm preparing to start, and to play."

Indy Sports Central’s Chris Hagan reports that Luck suffered a subluxation of his throwing shoulder, also known as a partial separation of the shoulder. Hagan reports that a source close to the situation says that at least three out-of-state experts have looked at the injury and given their input, and that Luck had an MRI a week ago. 

Doctors are concerned about Luck’s labrum, cartilage that helps keep the shoulder in place. 

Asked about the report, Pagano says, “I hadn’t heard that. Sore shoulder is what I heard.”

Oct. 8: Luck is inactive for a second straight game. Hasselbeck starts again and the Colts beat the Texans. The next game — against the Patriots — is 10 days away, a brief break for Luck.

Oct. 12: Stephen Holder writes about the confusion surrounding Luck:  

When it comes to the status of Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, the only certainty during the past two weeks is that the information provided was wholly unreliable.

One minute, Luck’s getting better. The next, never mind, he’s not playing. One minute he is said to be practicing, the next it’s revealed he was largely a spectator.

At this point, maybe none of it even matters.

This does: Luck has missed two straight games with a throwing shoulder injury, and the Colts play the New England Patriots on Sunday night.

Oct. 16: Luck is a full participant in practice for the first time in three weeks. His throws have more zip. With the Patriots' game two days away, Luck's official prognosis is the same as it has been for the past three weeks: questionable with a sore right throwing shoulder.

Oct 18: Luck plays for the first time since his shoulder injury. It's a loss to the Patriots, but Luck has a solid game, going 30-of-50 for 312 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions. (This also was the game of the infamous "worst play in history" fake punt.)

Oct. 25:  The interceptions are back as Luck struggles in a loss to the Saints. He throws two in the first half, one of them in the red zone.

Oct. 30: Zak Keefer writes about Luck's passing, which is now lackluster:

Luck’s throws have been hesitant, like the one on a crossing route to T.Y. Hilton in the second quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Saints. They’ve been alarmingly wide, like the one on the out route to Coby Fleener a few minutes later in the same game. They’ve been senseless, too, like the one he forced to Donte Moncrief in the end zone that the Saints easily picked off just before halftime.

He’s missed on screen passes and post patterns, throws Luck typically makes in his sleep. He’s locking onto his receivers the way a rookie QB would. It appears he’s aiming some passes rather than throwing them. On others, he's leaning back, almost as if he’s trying to use his whole body’s momentum to compensate for a lack of velocity.

His mechanics, his footwork, his timing, all of it seems off.

Nov. 2: Colts lose to Panthers. Luck throws three interceptions and fumbles once. Doyel writes: "Luck couldn’t throw the ball from here to there without it being grabbed first by the other team."  

"You’re a tough guy. So you get up, like you always do. You’re dazed. You’re hurting. You worry the wind has been knocked out of you. Your mind races. “How the hell am I going to call a play if I can’t speak?” you ask yourself. You breathe. Whew. You call the play. You take the snap. You backpedal — another collapsing pocket. That damn defense is coming again … coming … coming. You find the soft spot. You throw. Your running back catches, turns, scampers into the end zone. The crowd roars. The music blares. Your teammates celebrate. You don’t. You grit your teeth and lumber off the field. “Thank God we scored,” you tell yourself. “Now I can get to the sideline and sit down.”

Luck celebrates the victory in his downtown condo, pizza and beer with his girlfriend and parents.

Nov. 9: Luck wakes up and notices blood in his urine. Safety Mike Adams sees Luck in the training room, sees a black-and-blue bruise the size of a basketball. “You OK?” Adams asks. "Yeah,” Luck replies.

Nov. 10: Not OK. The Colts learn Luck has a lacerated kidney and partial tear of an abdominal muscle. Such kidney damage is usually seen in a motor vehicle accident, a doctor notes. Luck will be out two to six weeks, after already missing two games with the arm injury. What no one knows at the time: He won't take another snap the rest of the year.

Nov. 11: The prescription is rest. The kidney needs time to heal. Luck heads to West Virginia during the Colts’ bye week, where his parents still own a home. He sleeps 12 hours a day and plays video games with his brother.

Nov. 22: Hasselbeck leads the Colts over the Falcons.

Nov. 29: Hasselbeck leads the Colts over the Buccaneers. 

Dec. 2: Luck tells reporters that he has been throwing a "fair, intense amount" with no pain. 

Dec. 31: In what feels like piling on, fans learn for the first time that Luck's early-season injury to his right arm is worse than earlier thought. It's announced that Luck will miss his ninth game of the season, seventh due to the lacerated kidney. Fans also find out that Luck sustained torn cartilage on two ribs and is still coping with significant pain after returning to the lineup for four games in late October and early November. The injury likely affected Luck's performance after he returned from a two-game absence that the Colts attributed to a shoulder injury. Luck, according to an NFL source, needed pain-killing injections to play and was quite limited by the injury.

2016

The question entering 2016 is whether Luck can rebound after a 2015 season marred by injuries and some of the worst play of his career. He does, setting career highs in yards per attempt (7.8) and completion percentage (.635). But the Colts will finish the season 8-8.

Luck’s name is a staple on the injury report all season: He is listed every week, without fail, Weeks 1 through 17. He is typically a limited participant on Thursdays, handing off to the running backs during practice instead of throwing. On Sundays, he takes a beating. As a team, the Colts yield 44 sacks, fifth-worst in football, and 128 hits, more than any team except for the Cleveland Browns.​​​​

​​​Luck misses just one game, on Thanksgiving, with a concussion suffered against the Titans just four days earlier. 

On June 29, the Colts sign Luck to the then-richest contract in NFL history, a six-year, $140 million deal that will keep him with the team through at least the 2021 season. All eyes are on the 2017 season. 

2017

Jan. 19: The truth about Luck's 2015 throwing-arm injury finally comes out in a tweet from Colts owner Jim Irsay: 

Fans learn that Luck had surgery in mid-January to repair a torn labrum in his throwing shoulder dating back to the third game of the 2015 season. Experts on the procedure predict a six-to-nine-month recovery, which could place him back in the fold just as training camp begins July 30. Questioned by reporters, Irsay strongly hints that Luck aggravated the shoulder injury when he tried, in vain, to stop the Broncos’ Aqib Talib on an interception return in a 2016 Week 2 loss. 

Finally, Doyel writes, there's an explanation for Luck's lackluster play:

(For months) the Colts have told you the discouraging answer, the wrong answer, the deceitful answer: Nothing’s wrong with Andrew Luck.

Something happened, even as the Colts assured us nothing had happened. Luck appeared on the injury report this season, but coach Chuck Pagano — and Luck — dismissed that as maintenance. They made it sound like Luck was a young pitcher on pitch count: no need to throw too many fastballs during practice.

"The kid’s fine," Pagano told us. "Leave him alone."

Did you buy it? Not me, and not lots of us. Something has been wrong with Luck since the 2015 season began. ...

The Colts misled us for the entire 2016 season about Luck’s shoulder. Irsay just admitted it.

April 17: Luck speaks out for the first time about his decision to have surgery.

He reveals that it was his decision to undergo surgery in January to correct the lingering issue in his throwing shoulder.

He confirms that the injury dates back to the pounding he took in the September 2015 win over the Tennessee Titans that kept him out of the lineup for the subsequent two games. Luck, as it turns out, has been dealing with the issue ever since. 

Of the 2016 season, Luck says:

There were times when you play through pain, there were times when it felt great. The reality is everybody plays through pain in the NFL. I’ve played through pain every year. This was a little different beast from the standpoint of, as you guys know, my practice schedule was different and altered and certainly that made things difficult from a preparation standpoint.

There were a couple of times during the year where I would get hit in an awkward position or an awkward way, and it wouldn’t feel great. And it would be a taxing effort to get ready for the next week and the next week. And it didn’t feel like I could go through that and be productive.”

The rehabilitation approach used after the 2015 season allowed Luck to play quite well in 2016. But as he continued to absorb hits, the issue grew worse. Treatment was a temporary solution. Surgery should be permanent.

May 22-June 8: Luck is highly visible during organized team activities. He coaches the quarterbacks through drills and instructs the receivers on routes and timing. He doesn't see any action himself, though.

June 8: At a Colts town hall event, Luck says: “Feeling great ... rehab's going very well ... it’s a long and patient process. Pagano adds: “When it’s time, he’ll start going.” 

June 13-15: A mandatory minicamp concludes the 2017 offseason program. Aside from coaching from the sidelines, Luck doesn't participate.

July 19: Ten days shy of the date players report to training camp to kick off the 2017 season, Luck’s status remains uncertain, his recovery “status quo,” according to a league source. Never in his life has he gone this long without throwing a football; it's going on five months. 

July 24: Breaking news: Luck is throwing again. But he won’t be practicing anytime soon.

Luck is to begin training camp on July 30 on the physically unable to perform list, General Manager Chris Ballard reveals. Luck won’t be able to practice until he’s removed from the list, which Ballard says he expects will happen at some point during the preseason.

July 29: Colts players, including Luck, report to training camp. Luck won't say he will be ready for the regular-season opener. He says he has thrown a tennis ball, but will not say whether he’s throwing a football. He signs autographs. 

He also tells Doyel:

I will be better than I was — coming into this, I’ll be better coming out of it. I know that. I don’t know what day it’s gonna be, I don’t know what week, I don’t know when it’s gonna be, but I definitely will be, and there’s no reason to freak out.

Aug. 5-6: Luck’s presence at practice both days prompted questions about whether he’s close to a return more than seven months after shoulder surgery. Pagano says nothing has changed to suggest Luck’s activation from the physically unable to perform list is imminent. “I wouldn’t read too much into it if I was you,” Pagano says.

Aug. 13: First of four preseason games. Scott Tolzien starts at quarterback.  Jim Irsay reiterates a familiar refrain: The Colts can't commit to Luck recovering from surgery in time to start the Sept. 10 season opener. "We always knew it would be a borderline thing," he says. Luck is throwing a football now, Irsay says.

Aug. 22: We know Luck is throwing the football in workouts with trainers and equipment staff, Holder reports. Coach Chuck Pagano, pressed Aug. 22  for answers, says “there’s no timeline” for Luck’s return to practice.

Aug. 26: Preseason game at Pittsburgh.

Aug. 31: Preseason game vs. Cincinnati. 

Sept. 2: Regular-season rosters are due. The Colts have committed to activating Luck from the physically unable to perform list before this. He can't practice until he comes off the list. 

Sept. 10: Colts' first regular season game, at Los Angeles Rams. Luck doesn't play. Colts lose 46-9.

Sept. 10: Colts home opener vs. Arizona Cardinals. Luck doesn't play. Colts lose 16-13.

Sept. 18: Pagano announces Luck won't play in Game 3, vs. Cleveland. He is not yet practicing. Stephen Holder asked Pagano whether he had any doubt tht Luck would play this season. Pagano said emphatically, "No."

Sept. 24: Colts vs. Cleveland Browns. Luck doesn't play. Colts win 31-28.

Sept. 25: Pagano says Luck could practice with team soon.

Sept. 27: Pagano announces that Luck will not practice today.  

Oct. 1: Colts vs. Seattle Seahawks. Luck doesn't play. Colts lose; record is 1-3.

Oct. 2: Colts GM Chris Ballard says Luck will practice with the team this week for the first time since Dec. 30, 2016. 

Oct. 4: Luck practices with team for first time this year.

 Oct. 8: Colts vs. San Francisco. No Luck.

Oct. 16: Colts at Tennessee. Luck doesn't play; Colts lose 22-36.

Oct. 18: A setback: Luck will not practice this week because of soreness in his shoulder, Colts General Manager Chris Ballard said. He said Luck's velocity and motion are both good, and he's coming along at a good rate. Ballard said Luck will not be placed on injured reserve for now. Such a designation would end his season. Ballard did not rule out that happening in the future.

 Oct. 22 : Colts vs. Jacksonville. Luck doesn't play; Colts lose 27-0 and have a 2-5 record. 

Oct. 23: Colts announce Luck will not practice this week. 

 Oct. 29: Colts at Cincinnati. Luck doesn't play. Colts lose 24-23.

Oct. 30: Soreness continues to persist in Luck's surgically repaired throwing shoulder, keeping him off the practice field.

A source said Luck plans to see multiple shoulder specialists in the coming days to find the source of the soreness. The Colts had shut Luck down when he felt soreness after he finally returned to practice earlier this month.

Luck practiced for two weeks after more than nine months of rehab on the shoulder in which he sustained a partially torn labrum. But when the soreness developed two weeks ago, the Colts gave Luck a cortisone shot that doctors hoped would cause the pain to subside. But it hasn’t.

Nov. 2: Colts place Luck on injured reserve, meaning he'll miss the rest of the season.  

More:Andrew Luck placed on injured reserve and will not play this season

The Colts tweet the following quote from Luck: "I'm very optimistic (about the future). I wish I was better and 100 percent this season, but that's not the case. I know I'll be better from this. I know I'll be a better quarterback, teammate, person and player from this, and I'm excited for the future."

Ballard: "I've heard all kinds of rumors about career ending. I've not heard the from one doctor. Career ending would be to put out before he's ready."

Nov. 11: Luck is seeking treatment for his surgically repaired throwing shoulder in Europe, a league source confirms to IndyStar.

Luck is exploring unspecified therapy techniques aimed at addressing pain and getting the various parts of his shoulder to work together after surgery on his labrum in January, according to the source. ESPN first reported Luck's visit to Europe

Dec. 29:  After two months of silence, Luck is back at the team facility.

"My gut and my feeling tells me I won't need another surgery," Luck tells reporters.  "I’m very optimistic. I feel really good today I do not think I need another surgery. I believe in the process I’m in right now. I plan on being ready for everything (OTAs)."

2018

Jan. 30:  Keefer confirms that Andrew Luck is set to begin the next phase of his recovery, and will soon head out to Los Angeles to begin a throwing regimen.

Feb. 7: Luck has not started throwing a football in his L.A. rehab, Ballard says

Feb. 20: Luck says he is once again throwing. He shared that information in a Colts' town hall meeting. He also said a second surgery "is not an option for me right now."

March 21: GM Chris Ballard says the Colts will ease Luck into workouts when the team begins meeting on April 9.

April 9:  Andrew Luck spoke on Monday at the Colts complex about his recovery. He said he was not yet throwing a full-size football and that he "pushed a little too hard" during the fall and that might have contributed to his having a setback. "I paid for it," he said.

Luck said he was clearly progressing and that "If I wasn't making progress, I would freak out."

But he conceded "I am not a perfect-feeling athlete right now."

He said there was a timetable for his recovery but he wouldn’t share it.

Compiled from reporting by Colts Insiders Stephen Holder and Zak Keefer and columnist Gregg Doyel.