Recovering from knee and foot injuries wasn’t the only hurdle for Green Bay Packers cornerback Eric Stokes in his long comeback from last November’s season-ending injuries.
Stokes, who practiced Tuesday for the first time since the injuries, said he “tweaked” his hamstring (on the same side) a few times during training camp, delaying his return to the field.
Buy Packers Tickets“Couple of times during camp,” Stokes said of the tweaks Tuesday.
The hamstring injuries help explain why the Packers’ optimism about Stokes practicing during training camp never materialized. His goal was to play Week 1 but the hamstring tweaks — “annoying little things,” he called them — kept delaying his return to the practice field.
The 11-month journey began in Week 9 at Ford Field last year when Stokes suffered a sprained knee and Lisfranc foot injury, ending his season. He said the foot — which required surgery — was the main injury and required the most recovery time. In fact, Stokes wasn’t able to walk and needed a wheelchair during the recovery.
The Packers kept Stokes on the physically unable to perform list through training camp and to start the regular season, forcing him out of the first four games. The 2021 first-round pick is now eligible to return to the 53-man roster and play as soon as this week, although it’s possible the Packers will ramp him up slowly over the three-week activation window.
Stokes said he’s been running full speed since the start of training camp and he’s “not worried” his speed, one of his elite traits coming out of Georgia.
Would he be ready to play this week? Stokes said he needs to get back to covering receivers at full speed in a practice setting before he can say for sure.
But getting back on the practice field was a big first step.
“It’s been a long time,” Stokes said. “It feel good being back out there today. Felt great.”
