The Green Bay Packers were already facing questions about their defense’s ability to keep up with the Dallas Cowboys, and those concerns may loom larger after Jaire Alexander rolled his ankle Wednesday.
During the Packers jog-through, the All-Pro cornerback stepped on a teammate’s foot and injured one of his ankles. This puts his availability in jeopardy for wild-card weekend as Green Bay travels to face the second-seeded Cowboys.
“So, it was kind of a freak deal yesterday,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said Thursday via ESPN. “I mean, ’cause you guys saw we had mostly a jog-through and just, unfortunately [he] stepped on somebody’s foot and rolled his ankle. I know he’s doing everything he can to be available, and I’d say it’s day-to-day and we thought it was best obviously today to have him not practice.”
This is the third time this season that Alexander has been injured, and the previous two setbacks caused him to miss a combined nine games. Alexander sustained a back injury when he and practice squad quarterback Alex McGough collided, and then he hurt his shoulder Nov. 5 against the Los Angeles Rams.
Packers reporters noted that while Alexander didn’t talk to the media, they didn’t notice any visible issues with his ankle or a boot.
When asked about how often LaFleur has seen a player suffer an injury in a half-speed practice, the coach said this situation is out of the ordinary.
“Well, it’s happened,” he said. “It doesn’t happen very regularly and it was just … it was a freaky deal. It’s not like he was, I mean he was locked in, focused, doing everything we ask him to do and unfortunately just stepped on somebody’s foot and it happened.”
Jaire Alexander sprained ankle in “freak deal” Wednesday
Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander had an ankle injury on Wednesday’s practice report. The new injury limited him.
Coach Matt LaFleur revealed Thursday that Alexander was injured during the team’s jog-through practice Wednesday.
“It was kind of a freak deal yesterday,” LaFleur said, via Wes Hodkiewicz of the team website. “We had mostly a jog-through, and he stepped on somebody’s foot and rolled his ankle. He’s doing everything he can to be available. I’d say it’s day-to-day.”
It has been that kind of year for Alexander.
He played only seven games because of a shoulder injury and a one-game suspension for anointing himself a captain for the Carolina game and nearly screwing up the coin toss.
“It was a freaky deal,” LaFleur said, via Ryan Wood of USA Today network. “He was focused, locked in, doing everything we were asking him to do, and it just happened.”
