The Seattle Seahawks saw their top draft pick from April go down during Tuesday’s practice with an ankle sprain, keeping defensive end L.J. Collier out for at least the next couple of weeks.
“It’s a little bit unusual, kind of the upper part of his foot,” Pete Carroll said Thursday. “It’s an unusual one for us, we really haven’t had a guy who sprained his ankle just like this. We’re going to be really slow to make sure we know what we’re doing with this. It’s a rare sprain.”
Collier isn’t the only Seahawk with a sprain, as guard Mike Iupati is also battling an injury.
“Mike had a mild sprained foot, and he’s doing great, it shouldn’t be too long,” Carroll told reporters. “It’s keeping him out right now, but he’s in pretty good shape, he’s out of the boot and all that kind of stuff already, so he’s doing well.”
But undrafted free agent tight end Justin Johnson might be suffering from the worst injury of all.
“I’m afraid that he might have gotten the Achilles today,” Carroll announced. “It’s one of those freaky injuries. He’s out in open space and takes a step and that pop happens. We’ve never been able to explain why that happens. It’s somewhat of a devastating injury because it takes so long, it takes nine months or whatever to get back. If that’s what it is, then he’ll be working at it for some time. It’s very unfortunate.”
Wide receiver Tyler Lockett had the wind knocked out of him during Thursday’s drills but was able to return to practice. Tackle Duane Brown had a family matter to attend to and was not at the facility.
The Seahawks resume practice at 10:15 a.m. Friday morning.
