We generally know about the injuries Lions wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown dealt with over the course of last season. A toe injury in Week 2 against the Seattle Seahawks did not cost him any games, but an abdomen injury he suffered in Week 3 against the Atlanta Falcons did eventually cost him a game in Week 5.
It was a short week before Week 4 Thursday night Football against the Green Bay Packers. But via the Netflix series "Receiver", St. Brown noted his pain level was an eight or nine out of 10 as he dealt with the toe and what he thought was a hip pointer pending a subsequent MRI after Week 4.
"I’ve had a hip pointer before, so I thought it was a hip pointer,” St. Brown said (h/t to Pride of Detroit). “And I’m like, ‘Damn, my toe’s still hurting at this point. Now I have this oblique injury.’”
But in regard to the Packers game on a short week, St. Brown acknowledged the difference between other games.
"It’s too late for me not to play. The game plan’s in,” St. Brown said. “Painkillers is something that I really don’t like to take unless... unless it’s the Packers.”
Amon-Ra St. Brown reveals full extent of injuries/maladies from last season
St. Brown revealed he had tore his left oblique muscle "completely off the bone" He missed one game, and coach Dan Campbell had more details as to why he was shut down for Week 5.
"He may be able to play, and he may be able to function, but if this thing tears even just a little bit more, you’re talking about (missing) six weeks, you’re talking eight weeks,” Campbell said.
St. Brown popped up late on the Week 8 injury report, before the Monday night game against the Las Vegas Raiders, with what was deemed an illness. Later that week, via Kyle Meinke of MLive, he revealed some details.
"I had blisters on my feet, on my hands, on my mouth,” St. Brown said after practice on Thursday. “Before the game, my hands and feet weren’t really hurting. They were hurting a little. But in the game, they got worse. I wore socks and gloves, so the blisters got swollen. I thought I was running on needles. Catching the ball, it hurt a lot, especially toward the end of the game. But sh*t, I had to play. I already missed one too many games, and I knew we had a bye week coming up too, so I knew I’d be all right.”
In accounting for the extent of that malady on "Receiver", St. Brown revealed he had contracted hand, foot and mouth disease. He had six catches for 108 yards in that game against the Raiders. St. Brown's girlfriend Brooklyn Adams talked about it.
"He was sweating so much that the spots on his hands and his feet turned into open sores and blisters,” Adams said. “So he played that entire game with blisters popping.”
Not that St. Brown's toughness can ever be questioned. But playing a game with hand, foot and mouth disease is a unique level, to say nothing of having torn an oblique muscle totally off the bone a handful of weeks prior.