(CNN)Joe Burrow said Wednesday that he “feels good, feels better every day” after undergoing appendix surgery 23 days ago.
The Cincinnati Bengals quarterback underwent surgery on July 26 after feeling unwell, which led to an evaluation and surgery.
On Wednesday, Burrow reported to training camp and participated in 11-a-side team practice for the first time since the Super Bowl in February. In his first meeting with the media, he said he has no plans to play in any of his team’s preseason games, but that he feels “good, feeling better every day.”
Burrow told the media that during his time on the sidelines he lost some of the weight he needs to play at the high level he’s shown in his few years in the NFL.
And now, with the start of the NFL season just weeks away, the 25-year-old has a short window of opportunity to try to rebuild.
“I felt as good as I came after off-season training. Now I have to get back to that,” Burrow said. “I gotta go back to the high school days when you’re trying to gain 20 pounds in a few weeks. So let’s force it down as much as possible.
“During off-season training, you’re working to build your body and become more athletic—stronger, bigger, faster. So when you come to camp you don’t have to worry about any of those things, you can focus on football, but if you have this surgery and you lose your strength, you have to put that back in the foreground to rebuild. “
Stunted offseasons are something Burrow has gotten used to.
In his rookie season, he had to prepare for his NFL debut during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Last season, he was still in rehab after tearing ACL and MCL months earlier.
And now, with his appendix ruptured, Burrow is praying for a future in calmer waters.
“One day I’d like to have a normal offseason,” he said. “It would be great to start the season feeling as good as possible. But that hasn’t been the reality for three years, so you make the best of what you have. We will try again next year.”
Though Burrow returned from a serious knee injury in 2021, Burrow’s excellence was a driving force behind the Bengals’ magical run to Super Bowl LVI — winning the 25-year-old as comeback player of the year.
He led the NFL in completion percentage as Cincinnati reached their first Super Bowl since 1998. Although the performance eventually ended in defeat, it cemented the Bengals as one of the rising star teams behind Burrow’s brilliance.
While the team is almost at the top of the mountain, expectations for the new season remain sky-high, Burrow says.
“I think we’re going to have a really good team. We’ve got most of our defense back, added some really important pieces that I think have done really well at camp, not just on the field but in the dressing room as well ‘ he said.
“We added some great guys there and that’s just as important as it is on the field… I think our expectation is to be in every game we play and win our division and make the playoffs. I think that’s the goal every year.”
Add Comment