Ottawa Citizen

Luck preparing for full return in coming season

- CINDY BOREN

Andrew Luck has cleared up the mystery of just what is going on inside his shoulder, putting to rest the idea he might need more surgery.

“That is not an option for me right now,” the quarterbac­k said of further surgery, speaking via FaceTime at an Indianapol­is Colts town hall hosted by SI.com’s Peter King. “That ship has sailed in my mind, which is also a bit of relief now, if I’m not going to lie.”

Although there have been reports Luck — who had surgery in January 2017 to repair a torn labrum that had been an issue since 2015 — had not yet thrown a football, he said he is still working on strengthen­ing his shoulder and on refining his throwing motion.

“I’m in the middle of sort of a little bit of throwing, but strengthen­ing and preparing my shoulder to be able to handle the throw load that is part of being an NFL quarterbac­k,” he said. “The focus right now is still strengthen­ing all those muscles and making sure my shoulder can handle that.”

And that takes time, with a progressio­n that requires patience.

“One thing I’ve learned through the last couple of years is you can’t skip steps. You have to do everything as well as possible,” he said. “I have to catch myself, as much as I wanna grab a ball and throw it a million times, I know I have to build up to be able to handle that. And right now I’m in that building phase. And it’s exciting.”

Luck’s goal is to be ready when off-season workouts begin in April.

“You know what, I’m hopeful that maybe that could happen,” said Frank Reich, the Colts’ new head coach. “I’m hopeful, yeah. I know it sounds odd, but I’m not demanding an answer on that. I’m not, ‘Hey, someone tell me, is he ready?’ I hope he’s there, but we’ll go on if he’s not. I’m optimistic and I’m hopeful, but honestly that’s not the forefront question on my mind every day coming to work.”

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