Colts' Henry Anderson's throat injury could've threatened his life

INDIANAPOLIS – The throat injury that cost Henry Anderson the last half of his third NFL season could’ve cost him much more. Worst-case scenario? If he would’ve returned this season, and his partially-damaged larynx would’ve been further damaged?

“Death, maybe,” Anderson said matter-of-factly on Wednesday.

The Indianapolis Colts defensive tackle was sent to the injured reserve list last month after suffering one of the most bizarre football injuries you’ll ever hear: a bruised throat. Anderson took a hit to the front of his neck from a running back during the second quarter of the Colts’ 20-17 win over the Houston Texans on Nov. 5, remained in the game, and could barely speak afterward.

Nothing but a bump in the road, he figured.

He figured wrong.

Anderson had injured his larynx, the muscular organ that encircles the throat’s airway. If Anderson had returned to the field this season, and the larynx was damaged further, he could’ve had trouble breathing.

“I was lucky,” Anderson said. “I didn’t think you could hurt your throat that bad. I thought I’d be fine in a few days, it’d go away. Then I got the call from the doctor after the scan. He told me what it was. I was pretty bummed. Right when I was starting to get comfortable ...”

The team decided to take no chances. Surgery. Season over.

He went under the knife five days after the injury, was put on injured reserve and has remained in Indianapolis, rehabbing and readying for a fourth NFL season next fall that will determine his future with this franchise. Anderson will enter 2018 on the final year of his four-year rookie contract.

“If I got hit again there, if you don’t have a solid structure in place protecting your airway, it could collapse the airway,” Anderson said. “And you don’t want that to happen.”

The timing of the injury stunk for Anderson, who’d come into his own after battling back from a torn ACL that dogged him for a year and a half. Before the Texans game, he’d had two sacks in his last three starts, and two weeks earlier against the Jaguars totaled four tackles, a sack and a forced fumble. Against Cincinnati a week later he compiled seven tackles and blocked a field goal.

He was one of the central reasons why the Colts’ defensive line was the team’s deepest position group.

The good news, for Anderson, is that the surgery was a breeze – compared with past ACL procedures he’s had on both knees – and he’ll be 100 percent when the team reconvenes for offseason workouts in April, anxious to prove himself worthy of that coveted second contract.

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