Indianapolis Colts: Dallas Clark Feeling Great, Excited for Preseason

During the Week 5 matchup with the Washington Redskins last year, Colts tight end Dallas Clark was forced to come out of the game with what, at the time, appeared to be a minor injury to his wrist. A week later it was determined that the injury was quite serious, and would require surgery, which meant the Colts would be without their Pro Bowl tight end for the rest of the season. Clark spoke about the injury and how preseason is going when he stopped by 1070 The Fan in Indianapolis this morning.

On how his wrist is feeling:

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It feels great. How long have we been here? I don’t even know, but I have not felt it. I’m trying not to jinx myself or think about it too much, but I’m seriously trying to just take it day by day, and cross whatever bridge that comes — however it feels, or whatever attention it needs, more therapy, more post-workout treatments and things like that. But it feels great so I’m really excited.

"

Clark has been wearing a brace during preseason. How long does he have to wear that thing?

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Yeah he wants me to wear it all year, which at first I was pretty not excited about. But I’ve gone out to practice here and been able to catch, block, pass-pro and do everything that I need to do. The ball I dropped, I just took my eye off it; it wasn’t the brace or anything like that. So it’s exciting. It’s not inhibiting me from doing what I need to do. It looks stupid, but other than that it does it’s job, it gives me just a little more protection; I’ll probably wear it all year. So we’ll see what happens and take it week by week.

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Good to know the brace doesn’t hinder his performance in any way, even though it does look “stupid.” That’s good, but would he say he’s “100 percent”?

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Yeah they say it’s a year recovery, and it’s in October so we’ve got a few months before that. But they’re probably just kind of taking it day by day, and going on how I feel if we need to rest it or anything like that. But I seriously have not felt it, or it hasn’t given me any reason to idle back on practice. It’s just been great. It’s exciting, and they’re kind of excited as well. It’s kind of one of those things that you don’t really talk about unless I come to them and say ‘hey I did something and it just doesn’t feel right.’ But we haven’t had that case yet, so, so far so good.

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Sounds like all involved are optimistic, even though this type of injury usually takes a year to recover from. It will be interesting to see how much he plays in preseason. It feels good now, but how’s it going to feel with the full contact of an actual game?

Speaking of preseason, how’s he going to feel this Saturday against the Rams. Excited?

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Oh gosh, yeah! I mean, I don’t know, I might actually even be nervous it’s been so long, it feels like anyway. So I’ll be excited to be out there. I know it’s only preseason so you’ve got to keep the excitement at a minimum because it’s hard to get excited for a couple series. But I’ll enjoy the heck out of those.

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How hard was it for him to just sit and watch last year due to his injury?

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Miserable, absolutely. I can’t even explain it. It’s the toughest part of the sport I feel — dealing with injuries, dealing with you’re out there giving everything you got to help your team, and one play you’re done for the year. So it’s tough, but it happens, it’s part of the game, it’s not a shocker or anything like that. But it doesn’t make it easier. It’s something you go through and you either get better from it or you let it eat you and just kind of break you down mentally. But it’s tough. But it’s great to see the team go out there and play well and make the playoffs and make a great run with all the injuries they had. I was just really proud of how everything turned out.

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It’ll be great to see Dallas Clark back out there catching passes. Jacob Tamme filled in nicely for the Colts last year, but there’s only one Dallas Clark. He’s been one of the top tight ends in the league for the past five years, and the Colts need him to make another run at a Super Bowl. So far so good.

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