Chuck Pagano provides injury update on several Colts

The Indianapolis Colts return to the practice field today, but since they play on Monday the first injury of the report won’t come today but will actually be released tomorrow. That’s ok, however, because head coach Chuck Pagano provided an injury update at his press conference today.

He said that outside linebacker Robert Mathis (bicep), cornerback Patrick Robinson (groin), and cornerback Vontae Davis (groin) will not practice today, though right guard Denzelle Good (shoulder) should be back. As for quarterback Andrew Luck and safety Clayton Geathers, Pagano simply said multiple times that they’re still in the concussion protocol.

He didn’t go into any more detail than that, and he sounded like a guy who has been reminded that the NFL doesn’t want coaches talking about guys in the protocol. On Monday Pagano said that he expected Luck and Geathers to be back for Monday night’s game and discussed where they were at in the protocol and things like that, but the league doesn’t want coaches doing that while players are in the protocol because of the uncertain nature of it. So the change from Monday to Wednesday does seem like perhaps Pagano was reminded that the NFL doesn’t want him talking about the status of Luck and Geathers at this point.

We can talk about it, however, and it’s still looking likely that they will be back. If Luck and Geathers practice full-go today, they will then have to be cleared by the team and will then see an independent neurologist. If they’re cleared after that, then they’re good to go for the game. They were limited on Monday and Pagano said at the time that it was expected they’d be full participants on Wednesday, which would mean that all that’s left after that is to be cleared by an independent neurologist. So barring any setbacks, it definitely looks likely that they will be able to play Monday, but it’s not certain yet.

The other injury situations are more uncertain, as it’s unclear what the extent of the injuries to Mathis, Robinson, and Davis are. Robinson dealt with the groin last week but played anyway, while Davis left the game with a groin injury - so we’ll see whether they’re able to make it back for Monday’s game or not.