JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Jaguars Quarterback Trevor Lawrence is listed as 'questionable' on the team's injury report Friday for Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns.
The franchise quarterback suffered a high-ankle sprain during the Monday Night Football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Whether he plays or not on Sunday, is up in the air. However, Lawrence was seen throwing a football at the Miller Electric Center on Thursday. First Coast News reached out to Dr. Philip Adler, a podiatrist, on how long the QB's recovery stage would take.
Adler says it would take the average human six to eight weeks to recover from a high-ankle sprain. For professional athletes, possibly four to six weeks. The Jacksonville podiatrist is not treating the Jags' quarterback directly, but believes it is possible fans could see Lawrence return to the gridiron soon.
However, Lawrence's possible return comes down to how severe his injury is. Adler suggested the challenge for Lawrence is staying mobile without further injuring the ankle joint.
"When the individual is continuing to feel pain, with movement, that's one indication that they're not ready to resume normal activity," Adler explained. "An ankle injury is probably the most undertreated of the injuries that occur."
Adler described high-ankle sprains as a violent, sudden stretch when turning one's foot inward or outward. In layman terms, a high-ankle sprain means one is hurting both the tibia and fibula.
"Most commonly, it [low ankle sprains] occurs when the foot is pointing downward, and then it twists inward and it stretches the ligament in the front of the ankle on the outside and the hand, the one in the middle of the ankle joint, on the outside," Alder said. "That's most common well in, in terms of what happened on end. With a high-ankle sprain, you're not injuring those ligaments per se. Instead, what you're doing is you're injuring the ligament binds to bones, tibia and fibula together. And what happens typically, is this occurs when the foot is planted flat on the floor and then there's an internal or external rotation of the leg above it."
If Lawrence plays in the upcoming game versus the Browns, Adler told First Coast News it's likely the quarterback will have his ankle wrapped and will wear a splint.