Cardinals defensive end Zach Allen was on the injury report three times last season. He was questionable for Week 17 and Week 18 but played in both as well as the postseason loss to the Rams.
Allen revealed Wednesday how badly his ankle was injured most of the season.
“I literally had no ligaments in my ankle,” Allen said, via Howard Balzer of allcardinals.com. “My tibia was basically floating. So, the tape was the only thing holding it together.”
The only two games he missed last season were for COVID-19 as he gutted out the ankle injury with “a lot of tape and a lot of Toradol” to “make it work and kind of keep it together.”
Allen went under the knife in late January and now feels “great.”
“There’s been no setbacks, no anything like that to deal with,” Allen, a third-round choice in 2019, said. “It’s just kind of always been a nice progression. And we’ve been ahead of schedule the whole time, which has been nice. So, it’s been really good.”
He set career-highs with four sacks and 14 quarterback hits in 15 games last season.