Lions center Frank Ragnow has suffered the same injury to his left foot in each of the last two seasons, but he’s optimistic that the worst is behind him.
“Coming along,” Ragnow said, via MLive.com. “We’re good. We’re being smart with it though. We’re not rushing and making sure I get enough rest, because last season was one to forget in terms of that. It was brutal. So, just trying to be smart with it.”
Ragnow tore the plantar plate in his left foot in Week Four of 2021 and missed the rest of the season. He rehabbed that injury and thought it was behind him, only to suffer the exact same injury in Week One of the 2022 season.
“I was so mad it happened again,” Ragnow said. “I was over it, and had a great training camp, feeling good, and then the first game of the season it happened. So, I just had to fight through it.”
Fight through it he did, missing only Week Two but then starting every game the rest of the year despite never getting a full week of practice and often playing through pain. Ragnow says that at this point there’s no surgery that could repair the injury, and he’s just going to have to deal with it, but the pain isn’t as bad as it had been and he’s confident it’s an injury he can tolerate.
“It’s a deal where it’s kind of inoperable, so it’s something we’re trying to navigate,” he said. “But hopefully it’s not going to be anything near the altitude of last year, where it was, like, brutal.”
Ragnow was chosen to the Pro Bowl last year, and the Lions think that when he’s good to go he’s as good as any center in the NFL. They’re hoping the worst of the injury is behind him.