Carson Wentz's ankle injury: What to know as Colts QB is hurt in loss to Rams

INDIANAPOLIS — Carson Wentz knew the moment he hit the turf.

Wentz had been trying to escape the pocket when Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald grabbed his lower half and rolled, twisting Wentz’s ankle underneath him as he got the ball away for an incomplete pass.

The Colts starting quarterback waited for a moment, pushed himself back up and limped off the field, throwing his helmet in frustration as he got to the sideline.

“I could feel it underneath the pile right away,” Wentz said. “I think the guys around me could hear me yelling, because it was rolled up on pretty good. It’s definitely frustrating. Obviously, shouldn’t have thrown my helmet like that, but I knew at that point that I probably wasn’t going to come back out this game.”

Indianapolis inserted backup Jacob Eason, and he threw an interception that essentially sealed a 27-24 Rams win, dropping the Colts to 0-2. Eason was 2-of-5 for 15 yards with an interception.

Carson Wentz's injury history

Wentz has struggled with injuries throughout his NFL career.

When he was with the Eagles, a torn ACL ended his 2017 season; a back injury shut him down in 2018, and a concussion knocked him out of a playoff game in 2019. Two practices into his first training camp as a Colt, a piece of bone broke loose in his foot, and Wentz had to undergo surgery to remove the bone fragment. The injury cost him most of training camp.

Too early to know the severity

For the moment, it is too early to tell the severity of Wentz’s injury, although he does not think he broke his ankle.

“I don’t think so, but we’ll find out,” Wentz said. “I’ve sprained my ankle 100 times, probably since I was a kid. This one I just couldn’t play through at the end of the game. We’ll evaluate and do everything we can to get this ready to go for next week.

“I’m going to get this scanned as soon as I can and pray,” Wentz said. “Pray a lot that God can heal this thing and heal it quickly so I can be out here next week.”

Wentz tried to get back in the game.

After trainers took an initial look at it, Wentz tried walking on the sideline, walked up and down the sideline, laboring heavily the whole time. Trainers removed his right shoe and re-taped him, then taped over the shoe.

'You kind of feel like you let the team down'

“It did not feel good,” Wentz said. “Tried to tape it up, spat it up, do everything I could to get out there and finish the game. It’s a bad feeling to not be out there, especially in that situation. You kind of feel like you let the team down a little bit. It’s definitely frustrating, but it’s football.”

“I kind of had a sense when we walked off the field, because I saw that it didn’t look good,” Colts head coach Frank Reich said. “The longer we were off the field there, it just stiffened up. He tried, but there was no chance.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Carson Wentz's ankle injury: What to know as Colts QB is hurt in loss