After falling awkwardly on his ankle during a Week-5 match against the New York Giants, the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback claimed he tried to “reset” it himself. Those comments were made during an interview with Sage Steele on ESPN’s “Up Close With Sage Steele.” “
Prescott was seen hitting his ankle against the ground and grabbing it after the injury, to help him get off the field.
“I was trying to get off the field, and I knew it wasn’t straight,” Prescott said. “So I wanted to do that so I could get up, and when I couldn’t, that’s when I just waved and said ‘I can’t do this myself.’ They came over, they put it back in place, and that was a relief, right?
“You can imagine the pain it was in, and then it gets reset. I just remember over and over just saying, ‘Thank God.'”
Prescott’s desire to fix his ankle was triggered by a message his mother sent him as a young child.
“My mom always told me ‘get off the field no matter how bad you’re hurt,’ and at that moment, I just wanted to get off the field so bad, and I couldn’t,” Prescott said. “I thought it was just rolled, and as I grabbed it and did that, I was just like ‘I need to get off the field,’ so I was trying to set it back myself. I was trying to hit it into the ground.”
Prescott was diagnosed with a dislocation and compound fracture to his right ankle by doctors. According to Tom Pelissero, NFL Network, Prescott had to have season-ending surgery in October to fix the initial damage and another surgery in December to make sure it was structurally sound.
“The only time I can say that I was like, man, was when I had to get a second surgery,” Prescott said. “And that was just because I had gotten my foot back on the ground for about a week or so, and I didn’t necessarily know after my leg was facing another way how it was supposed to feel, but it didn’t feel great the first couple of days walking.”
The Cowboys signed Prescott to a four year, $160million contract in March. He is expected to be among the NFL’s highest-paid players by 2021.
Prescott will likely be fully recovered and be able to participate in the Cowboys training camp that opens July 21.