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Quin Falling Back On Pain Tolerance, Isn't Sure If Ankle Is Long-Term Concern

By Ashley Scoby
@AshleyScoby

The Lions can ill afford to have many more injuries to their defensive back corps.

Cornerbacks Rashean Mathis and Josh Wilson are both on injured reserve, with head and knee injuries, respectively. Cornerback Nevin Lawson had previously been in concussion protocol, but played against Philadelphia this weekend. At one point, the Lions only had three healthy cornerbacks on the roster.

And against the Eagles, it was safety Glover Quin that took the latest knock. He left the game with a left ankle injury and later had on a walking boot. It's the same ankle Quin had surgery on after the 2013 season.

"It's still attached to my body," Quin said wryly when asked Sunday how his ankle was feeling. "Didn't have to get it cut."

Quin did not dispel the possibility of another surgery on the ankle, but said it was something he wouldn't worry about until after the season.

"Once you hurt an ankle, you kind of continue to hurt it," he said.

Although he did have that 2014 surgery on his left ankle, Quin is a bit of an Ironman when it comes to injuries. He's played in all 11 games this year, as well as all 16 games in each of the last five seasons. He missed one game during his rookie year in 2009, but otherwise has been a constant presence.

Quin said he wasn't in much pain just standing up, but that he hadn't tried to run on the ankle yet. How well Quin can manage pain may be the biggest factor in if the injury will keep him out of game action this year.

"My pain tolerance is super high," he said. "I was sitting down thinking, like, 'man, I think I've played in 95 consecutive NFL regular season games.' I think that in order to play in 95 consecutive, you have to be able to fight through some injuries and pain because, I mean, it's a tough league, especially being a defensive guy. … I've played through some broken bones. I can take some pain."

Tolerating and excelling are two different things, though. And Quin will have to decide whether playing on a less-than-100-percent ankle will actually help the Lions.

"I want to win," he said. "If me playing puts our team at a disadvantage then I won't play," he said. "When I'm done playing, if I can look back and say, 'man, I actually played 150 straight games,' I'll be like, 'wow, that's pretty cool.' But right now I'm thinking about now and trying to win this game and like I said, if my status would hurt the team, then I won't play. If I feel like I can go and it'll help the team, then I'll try to play."

Head coach Jim Caldwell had no new information about Quin's status on Sunday, falling back on his standard "check the (injury) report" response.

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