During April's draft in Detroit a bit of a stir was caused when images of Lions defensive back Brian Branch surfaced showing showed him riding a scooter with a walking boot on his left foot. He did miss a couple games last season with an ankle issue, but it was an injury to his right ankle back then.
In April, it was much ado about little at least until we knew more. At OTAs in May, head coach Dan Campbell offered an update.
"He just had a little clean up there. Something that coming out of last year that – thought it might heal, and then it just ended up being, ‘You know we better get this thing done.’ So anyway, that’s where he’s at. That and I think he likes riding a scooter. But we feel like he’s progressing well, we feel like he’ll be ready to go in camp, if not early enough – it’ll be certainly he’ll get enough reps and be ready for the season. That’s how we feel right now.”
Campbell is under no real obligation to offer an injury report at OTAs, but it was clearly apparent he was not too concerned about Branch. Unless something changed, the overall concern level was all but gone.
Brian Branch looks to be just fine heading toward training camp (video)
On Tuesday, Branch was featured in a workout video posted on Instagram by performance specialist Christian Van Buren.
Brian Branch back working out @DetroitPodcast pic.twitter.com/lBqkuIh2c2
— Detroit Lions OnSI (@AllLionsFN) July 3, 2024
Take a 22-second clip for what it's worth. But Branch is shown planting on his ankle with no apparent issue and it's not limiting his ability to work out in the gym, which is obviously better than the alternative. There's certainly no need to rush things right now. It's unclear if Branch has been running, or if that's his next step with about three weeks to go before training camp starts.
All in all, Branch looks like he'll be ready to go later this month as he looks to build on an outstanding rookie season.