GREEN BAY, Wis. — Aaron Rodgers has a fractured pinkie toe — not “COVID toe” — and the Green Bay Packers‘ quarterback even put his bare foot in front of the camera on Wednesday in an effort to clear up the issue that has bothered him since he returned from his 10-day quarantine earlier this month.
After joking on Tuesday during his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” about “COVID toe” — a possible symptom of the virus he tested positive for on Nov. 3 — and following a story in the Wall Street Journal that took those comments as fact, Rodgers revealed Wednesday that he has a fractured toe, one he suffered during workouts at home while preparing to return to the Packers for their Nov. 14 game against the Seattle Seahawks.
“I’m glad you asked just so I could show you the lesions of my foot here, so if I have enough room on this camera, let me see if I can,” Rodgers said as he lifted his left foot in front of the camera during his Zoom news conference. “Oh, oh there’s no lesions whatsoever. Oh, what a surprise. No, that’s actually called disinformation when you perpetuate false information about an individual. I have a fractured toe.”
Rodgers said he expected an apology from the newspaper but added that he did “get a kick out of reading that article. That was very, very interesting, but no I had never heard of COVID toe before. Pat made a joke about it on the show, and I mentioned yesterday that it’s worse than a turf toe and it must be a bone issue.”
Aaron Rodgers was clearly waiting for the COVID-toe question because you can hear him say, “I don’t know if I have room to get my toe up there,” at the start of his press conference.
Here’s his full answer about his fractured toe – with said toe on the screen. pic.twitter.com/hoC2UZTxME
— Rob Demovsky (@RobDemovsky) November 24, 2021
The fractured toe was so problematic in Sunday’s 34-31 loss to the Minnesota Vikings that Rodgers actually went into the locker room before the first half ended, leaving Jordan Love to take the final snaps of the second quarter so he could undergo treatment at halftime. Although he did not elaborate on the treatment, Rodgers was nearly perfect in the second half, leading touchdown drives on all three possessions and throwing just one incompletion — an intentional throwaway — after halftime.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur said Rodgers will follow a similar practice routine as he did last week, when he participated only on Friday and only in a limited capacity, in advance of Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams at Lambeau Field. Rodgers did not practice on Wednesday.
“Certainly we’ll handle it day by day, but a lot of it’s just going to be on how he’s feeling,” LaFleur said.
Rodgers insisted he would not miss any game action because of the injury but will consider surgery during next week’s bye, as long as the procedure does not keep him out of any games.
“There’s surgical options, as well, that wouldn’t involve missing time, so thankfully, we’ve got a great foot guy in town — the best in the business, who everybody sends stuff to,” Rodgers said, referring to renowned foot specialist Dr. Robert Anderson, who moved his practice to Green Bay. “But I’ll definitely look at all options over the bye and decide what would be best to make sure that I get to the finish line.”
He said the injury occurred while he worked on his conditioning during his quarantine. He did not know the extent of his injury until he returned to the team the day before the Seahawks game.
“Didn’t think it was what it was until I got to the facility on Saturday before the game and got X-rayed when I got cleared when I came back in the facility,” Rodgers said. “It’s just about pain management.”