Lions QB Hendon Hooker provides injury update ahead of training camp

Detroit Lions rookies are to report to training camp on Wednesday, but before quarterback Hendon Hooker flies up to Michigan, he’s been doing the media rounds. As part of the SEC Media Day festivities, Hooker spent Monday doing several radio and television spots, and throughout several of them, he provided quick updates on his health.

Hooker suffered a torn ACL on November 19 and has been rehabbing since. This week, he told the panel on SEC Network that he’s made a lot of progress but still has some ways to go (via On3).

“Right now, I’m seven months out, really just stacking days,” Hooker said. “I just got back from L.A., working with Jordan Palmer and my rehab team, MOTUS. They’re really dialing into the little things to help my body get back to a stronger and better me.

“Usually, it’s 9-10 months, depending on the degree of injury and the surgery. I’m feeling better every single day. Whenever I get to get out there, move around, throw the ball, run, I’m ecstatic. I can’t do too much, too fast.”

By Hooker’s own timeline, it sounds like he’s still two months out. If that’s the case, that would likely mean Hooker will miss all of training camp and the preseason, so don’t be surprised if and when the Lions put Hooker on the Non-Football Injury list later in this week.

Reminder: They Lions can remove a player from the NFI list at any point in the preseason. However, if they decide to keep him on the NFI list at the start of the regular season, he will miss a minimum of four games but would not count against the 53-man roster.

Hooker explained a little more about what he’s working on in an interview with radio station 99.1 The Sports Animal.

“First and foremost, I want to make sure my leg is 100 percent,” Hooker said. “But just working through that, taking it day by day, being able to build on throws, being able to do new movements. Really getting my left leg to accept that weight transfer, that’s been the emphasis of my throwing here recently.”

While the rehab is obviously tough, Hooker has a partner in crime. Not only is Lions cornerback Emmanuel Moseley currently going through the same ACL recovery, but the two are both former Tennessee Volunteers and played high school ball together.

“Emmanuel has always been a mentor to me since I was a freshman in high school,” Hooker said. “I remember him walking me around to my high school open house my freshman year in high school. Him being there (in Detroit) and both of us going through this injury process, we’re basically just working off each other. Like, ‘How you feel today? How you feel today? Are you going to run? Yeah, I’m running today. Okay, cool.’

“Just encouraging each other while we’re out there, because it’s long, hard days when you’re out there running by yourself with a trainer, and (then) you look across the field and you see your guy over there working just as hard as you. We just kinda bounce that energy off each other.”