INDIANAPOLIS – Alec Pierce underwent surgery in late-March for a nagging injury to his left ankle, the Colts star wide receiver told reporters Wednesday, following a platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injection he received days after the end of the 2025 season that failed to relieve him of the significant pain he felt throughout the season. The procedure, Pierce said, comes with a 4- to 6-month recovery timeline, putting into question the amount of training camp the receiver — who landed the most lucrative free agent wide receiver contract in NFL history in March — could participate in July and August.
After the 6-to-8 week required timeframe to see if the injection — which is typically used to speed up the healing process in inflamed ligaments, tendons, muscles or joints – came and went, Pierce said Wednesday, he had returned to light jogging after spending 2 to 3 weeks in a walking boot but knew the shot hadn’t fully done its job.
“We talked with the doctors and they said the surgery was the smartest play for the long term. They were kinda saying I would have to do it at some point and then I asked about the timeframe (for recovery), and he said 4 to 6 months, and it was already late-March,” Pierce said. “Hearing that timeframe made for a quick turnaround.
“We could do it in 11 months after next season but they started talking about the risks and stuff, and we just determined that it was smart to take care of it now with the risk of having a worse injury happen during the season.”
Four months from surgery would put a Pierce return right at the start of training camp, and the longer end could even put his return for the team’s Week 1 regular season opener at Lucas Oil Stadium against the Ravens up in the air. Colts head coach Shane Steichen told reporters Tuesday that Pierce could very well miss the first week or two of training camp but he couldn’t yet pinpoint precisely when he would hope Pierce might be back.
“We all want the date to be as early as possible but you kinda have to let your body guide yourself and see how you feel,” Pierce said. “What I’ve learned with rehab is the more you overdo it, the more it can be counter-productive. I’m learning when to push through the pain and soreness and when to back off.
“It’s really interesting how smart your body is. I think I’ve been in-tune with how I feel and learning that this achy pain is fine, but a sharp pain is a guide that maybe we’re doing a little too much and maybe we’re being too aggressive and need to take a step back. And I had gotten used to the sharp pain. I felt it pretty much most of the last year.”
Despite his nagging injury, Pierce produced his first 1,000-yard season in 2025 and the team’s only one – with 1,003 yards on 47 catches and six touchdowns. He again led the league in yards per catch (21.3) and came through with two of his biggest games – four catches for 86 yards and two touchdowns against the 49ers and four catches for 132 yards and two scores in the season finale at the Texans – at a time where Pierce said he was feeling the worst over the final month.
“It was just a lot of discomfort. I think I knew there was an issue over the last month of the season on game days when I wasn’t feeling very good at all. I’d go out Wednesday, Thursay or Friday, and it might be pretty tough, and I’d understand then I’m not going to feel 100%, and that’s fine,” Pierce said. “But once I’d get to game days, and I still wasn’t feeling great with a lot of discomfort, that’s when I knew I had an issue that I needed to get figured out.”
Pierce finalized his offseason contract negotiations with the Colts on March, 11 minutes after the opening of free agency on new four-year deal worth as much as $114 million coming off the end of his rookie deal, and he said Wednesday the free agency process had no bearing on having the surgery done.
“We first went with the PRP shot, and that was an eight-week process, and even then a month in, I was saying, ‘I don’t feel great. I don’t think this is working,’ but you still have to wait because this is a thing that takes time to heal, and who knows if in March or April it might be helping me,” Pierce said. “I got around to March and got back into jogging, but nothing too explosive, and we were seeing how the shot reacted and seeing if that helped heal it.
“But I don’t think it did as much as we wanted it to. It didn’t fix the problem. It was more of a band-aid-type solution, shorter-term, and that didn’t work out.”
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts WR Alec Pierce on the 4- to 6-month recovery on ankle surgery
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