EL SEGUNDO — Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert sounded eager on Wednesday to put the plantar fascia injury that sidelined him for more than two weeks during training camp in the past. It was not an easy task when he met with reporters for the first time since the team announced his injury on Aug. 1.
They had questions for him.
Plenty of questions.
“I would say it’s not really on my mind right now,” Herbert said of the potentially debilitating injury to his right foot, what with the Chargers’ season-opening game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday afternoon. When asked if he was 100% after Wednesday’s two-hour practice, he said, “Correct.”
Herbert declined to say when or how he first suffered the injury, adding that he’d prefer to keep that a private matter and would rather it didn’t reach a public audience, but he indicated he felt discomfort before the start of training camp on July 24 and went to see the athletic training staff at some point before Aug. 1.
“It was getting a little sore, so I went to go talk to them about it,” said Herbert, who spent two weeks in a protective walking boot. “But it wasn’t really one moment where I felt it happen. … I don’t know the exact diagnosis of it or the finite moment when it happened. I would say it probably happened before that (the start of camp). I couldn’t say exactly when. That’s kind of the difficult part.
“We’re through it and we’re looking forward.”
Herbert seemed to indicate that it would take some ongoing management of his foot to continue playing, including icing the bottom of his foot and performing rehabilitating exercises before and after practices and games, including Sunday’s season opener against the Raiders.
He also acknowledged experimenting with various shoes since his return to the practice field on Aug. 19 in order to ease the stress on the bottom of his foot. The pain could flare up as he plants his right foot to deliver a pass, and it could really cause trouble while playing on a firm artificial turf.
Eleven of the Chargers’ 17 games this season will be played on artificial turf, including all eight games on their home field at SoFi Stadium.
“Just fired up to watch him compete,” Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said of Herbert. “Can’t wait to watch him compete. Last press conference we talked about the word comfortable. I said that’s not a word I would associate in football. As an addendum to that, I would like to see the quarterback be comfortable in the pocket.”
Harbaugh sidestepped a specific question about Herbert’s injury.
“I can’t wait to watch him compete,” Harbaugh said. “He’s been so good, so locked in this entire offseason. His practices, I ran out of the appropriate adjective (to describe Herbert’s play). He’s like a human computer chip for a brain. Just the way he thinks. The way he can go through information, absorb it, maintain it, disseminate it, it’s really impressive. Can’t wait to watch him compete.
“Concerns? I have concerns about the entire team, their health, yeah, that’s always top of mind. I’m excited. I can’t watch him compete.”
Wide receiver DJ Chark Jr. did not participate in practice because of a hip injury and rookie cornerback Tarheeb Still was listed as limited because of a hip injury in the Chargers’ first injury report of the season. Further updates will be released by the team as the week progresses.
