INDIANAPOLIS — The Indianapolis Colts will start training camp practices this week with at least three players continuing to rehab from injuries — at least for now.
The team on Sunday announced that safeties Clayton Geathers and Malik Hooker and guard Jeremy Vujnovich have been placed on the Active/Physically Unable To Perform (PUP) list. The three players will count towards the team's 90-man roster.
The Active/PUP list is for players who have suffered football-related injuries and are unable to immediately take part in training camp practices. A player on the Active/PUP list can return to the active roster — and to the practice field — at any time during training camp and the preseason; players cannot be placed on the Active/PUP list if they have already participated in any preseason practices, however.
Colts general manager Chris Ballard on Friday updated reporters on the injury status of several players, including Geathers, Hooker and Vujnovich, each of whom, he said, could start training camp on the Active/PUP list:
» Geathers experienced a knee issue towards the end of the 2017 season and underwent a minor "knee procedure" this offseason to clean it up. Ballard said Friday the safety is "probably about 80, 85 percent right now."
"(Geathers) most likely will start on PUP," Ballard said. "How long he's on there, I'm not quite sure. But he's pretty close. He's worked his tail off, and he's pretty close to being ready to go."
Ballard confirmed that Geathers — who did not participate in the on-field portion of the Colts' offseason workout program — did not have any setbacks as it pertained to an offseason neck surgery from last offseason that forced him to miss the first 11 games of the 2017 season, as some had speculated.
"Geathers is going to be fine from all indications, it's just a matter of getting used to the pounding again," Ballard said. "It's just stackin' the days, and there'll be some days when he gets back that will have to be limited, but he's worked his tail off to get back and get back right."
» Hooker has been working his way back to full health after suffering a torn ACL and MCL while attempting to make a tackle along the sideline during the Colts' Week 7 game last season against the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Ballard said the team is waiting until the nine-month mark post-surgery — which will be around Aug. 9 or 10 — to re-visit Hooker's availability, but he doesn't, at this time, anticipate the second-year safety will miss much, if any, time to start the regular season.
"That's the day where the statistics will tell you that at nine months is where the chance of re-injuring the ACL again significantly drops. And then each week out from then it continues to significantly drop," Ballard said. "So I think sometime in that early- to mid-August area he should come on. We think he'll be good for the second part of the preseason into the season; anytime you're coming back from an ACL it takes time. It just does."
» Vujnovich, meanwhile, is battling a calf injury. He missed the entire on-field portion of the offseason workout program practices available to be seen by the media.
"He had a pretty good pull on that calf, and that just takes time to get back from," Ballard said.
Vujnovich was one of two Colts offensive linemen, joining left tackle Anthony Castonzo, to play 100 percent of the snaps for the Indy offense last season.
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While Colts rookies, injured players and quarterbacks reported to Grand Park Sports Campus today for an early start to training camp, they'll be joined by the rest of their teammates on Wednesday.
It's possible more players could be placed on the Active/PUP list prior to the start of camp practices on Thursday, including Castonzo, who suffered a hamstring injury during a recent workout, Ballard said.
"It's touch and go," Ballard said of Castonzo. "We're waiting; he's making good progress. He came back and he's rehabbing. If we do put him on PUP, it will not be a long-term (thing); it'll be two or three days, and we don't foresee any long-term issues. But he does have a little hamstring, and if he's not out there the first couple days that's why."
Keep it tuned to Colts.com for all the latest.
