Andrew Luck dealing with an injury to his throwing shoulder

After a few days of speculation, we finally have confirmation: Colts quarterback Andrew Luck is indeed playing injured.  Head coach Chuck Pagano confirmed today that Luck was limited in practice today with an injury to his right shoulder - in other words, his throwing shoulder.  He will appear on the Colts' injury report this week and Pagano described him as "day to day" - but added that he has "supreme confidence" that the quarterback will play on Sunday.

When asked what play Luck was hurt on, Pagano said "pick one."  In other words, Luck has been hit so many times that you could point to a number of different plays in which the injury occurred.  Those comments say pretty much everything you need to know regarding the state of the Colts' offensive line.  Pagano wouldn't specify which play it was but instead pointed to the large quantity of hits that the quarterback has taken already this year.  He did say, however, that Luck was "absolutely not" dealing with an injury before the Titans game, obviously meaning that the injury had to have occurred sometime during the past game.

Luck said on Monday that he didn't expect to appear on the injury report this week, but that will now be the case.  It will be the first time on the injury report for the Colts' quarterback since late in the 2012 season, when he was on the report with a knee injury.  He has never missed a game in his NFL career, and it's very, very unlikely that will happen this Sunday.  But when Luck and the Colts do take the field, we'll at least know for sure this time that the quarterback is playing with an injury to his throwing shoulder.

The Colts have a tough upcoming slate, as they will play two games in five days - Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars at home and then on the road on Thursday Night Football against the Houston Texans.  For a player trying to recover from injury, that's not an ideal schedule, and that likely factored in to the decision to keep Luck limited in today's practice.  He has taken a lot of hits this year and is already pretty beat up, including an injury to his throwing shoulder, so with two games in five days coming up, it's a smart move to try to let him rest up and recover a bit.

UPDATE: Andrew Luck also spoke with the media after practice and said that, while his shoulder doesn't feel like he wants it to feel, he doesn't consider it to be that big of a deal.  Luck also confirmed that the injury did happen in the Titans game, but wouldn't specify when.  He said that, "I fully expect to go out there and play" against the Jaguars this Sunday.