Andrew Luck was 'miserable,' 'scared' during absence

"I was a sad, miserable human," Luck told the Indy Star. "I was not nice to myself, nor was I nice to anyone else. I was a miserable SOB to be around. I was nervous. I was scared."

Days before his expected return after a 20-month absence, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck opened up about the dark moments he went through during his drawn-out recovery from shoulder surgery.

"I was a sad, miserable human," Luck told the Indy Star. "I was not nice to myself, nor was I nice to anyone else. I was a miserable SOB to be around. I was nervous. I was scared."

After initially injuring his shoulder in Week 3 of 2015, Luck opted not to have surgery after that season, but a procedure became necessary a year later after he struggled to make it through 2016. He had surgery in January of 2017 and then admittedly rushed his recovery in hopes of playing in 2017 despite battling pain in his shoulder all the while.

"I convinced myself I could force things to happen, and I paid for it," Luck said, adding that he kept waiting to just wake up one day and have his shoulder back to normal. When that didn't happen, he feared his career was over, or that he could never enjoy the game again.

"There was an uncertainty, an apprehension," Luck said. "I was scared, scared in my core, in my insides. There was a time I was very scared about football, and about my place in football."

Colts owner Jim Irsay added, "He really went through hell."

Luck said his turning point came when he stopped expecting the injury to be healed all at once and began focusing on step-by-step progress, which has since carried him steadily back toward the playing field. Despite missing practice time last week with what head coach Frank Reich called a "minor" foot injury, all indications are that Luck's shoulder will be fine when he takes the field Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals.

The QB said the preseason helped him test the shoulder against hits, including one from the Baltimore Ravens' Terrell Suggs that felt similar to the hit that initially injured his shoulder back in 2015.

"I didn't feel anything," Luck said of the hit. "Didn't give it a second thought. That's a big deal."

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)