Hugh Thornton suffered setback with ankle injury

Colts right guard Hugh Thornton missed the second half of training camp with a boot on his right foot, missing time due to an ankle injury. It was assumed that the injury was the same he dealt with in the offseason, and today Chuck Pagano confirmed that Thornton suffered a setback with his ankle injury.

“He was doing well obviously, but he has to stay healthy,” Pagano said. “He has to be available and he has to be on the field. Again, he is dealing with that ankle, he had a setback. We will get him back here as quick as we can and get him back out there so he can continue to compete.”

This was a big training camp for Thornton, but he spent most of it recovering from injury. That allowed Denzelle Good to emerge as the frontrunner at right guard even more than he already was, and it put Thornton’s spot on the roster even more in jeopardy. Put simply, Thornton needs to play some in preseason to impress and to compete for a roster spot. He hasn’t been able to do that yet, and that has resulted in him becoming a bit of an afterthought in camp. He has already been ruled out for Saturday’s preseason opener, and at this point it’s unclear when he’ll be back. We at least got a little bit more information on him today as Pagano told us that the lineman suffered a setback with his ankle injury, meaning that it’s more than just precautionary right now, but the cold, hard truth of the NFL is that he has to be out on the field. The Colts talk a lot about ‘abilities,’ and one of the most fundamental one is availability. So far, Thornton hasn’t provided that.