To the outside world and almost everyone not named Saquon Barkley, the fact the superstar running back is doing as much as he is 11 days after sustaining a high ankle sprain is surprising, maybe even shocking.

Barkley does not see it that way.

“Is it surprising to you all?’’ Barkley said Thursday. “I feel like a lot of it is mental, how you approach it. The same way I attack the field and the same way I attack the weight room, I was going to attack the training room and recovery. I think I’ve been doing that.’’

It was another day for Barkley to display enough healing evidence to suggest he will not need the six to eight weeks most players require before returning from a high ankle sprain. He is not most players.

As he did a day earlier, he warmed up with the team and looked spry as he skipped and jogged and even jumped and danced through the pre-practice session. Once the players split up for individual drills, Barkley went off to a side with a trainer and went through some agility drills — cutting on his injured right ankle, though not at full speed.

Barkley did not practice at all, though. Coach Pat Shurmur did not rule Barkley out of Sunday’s game against the Vikings, and official word on that should come down Friday. Despite the clear and impressive progress, Barkley is not expected to be given clearance to play.

Shurmur was dismissive of reports and opinions of doctors who never saw or examined Barkley that assigned a time frame for his return.

“We check constantly with our doctors and we make sure he is on the right track to come back,’’ Shurmur said. “People outside the building put time frames on things. Within the building we know that all people are different, and that’s why you hear us say, typically, day-to-day or week-to-week. As different as people are, they respond differently to injuries. Sometimes the injuries are more or less severe but still get categorized as this. So that’s where we have to be careful when people are trying to predict when a player comes back.’’

This is especially true for a player such as Barkley. He had a high ankle sprain at Penn State and missed just two games.

“To be honest, the way I train and the way I operate, it probably should have been way worse than it was,’’ Barkley said of this injury. “It’s not any concern about going back out there and reinjuring it. I think if you’re worried about that, that’s how you get hurt again.’’

There is a reason the injury Barkley has is commonly referred to as a “dreaded’’ high ankle sprain, which is actually ligament damage in the lower leg. There are varying severities of the ligament tears or fraying, though, and, based on Barkley’s progress, it appears he did not incur the most severe sprain. He also is known to have remarkable recuperative powers.

“I think we’ve already seen that there are a lot of things about Saquon that are unique,’’ Shurmur said. “We just have to see if this is another part of his uniqueness.’’

Barkley clearly is scoffing at the predictions he would miss as much as two months.

“If you go back and look at my injury, I don’t care how strong an ankle I have, how much I lift, how much I run, how much I condition,’’ he said. “I just got hit in the bad spot. That’s why I got a sprain. It happens. That’s football. If I’m worried about that, I should give up football. I don’t plan on giving up football anytime soon.’’