Chargers' Austin Ekeler Updates Ankle Injury, Hopes to Return 'Sooner Than Later' | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

Los Angeles Chargers running back Austin Ekeler is hoping to make his return quickly from an ankle injury that kept him out of action in Week 2.

He told Yahoo Sports that he was hopeful he'd be back "sooner than later."

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"I've dealt with ankles in the past. You've just got to get it to a point where you feel good, where it's taped up and you can actually feel like, 'OK, if I get tackled, it's not going to be reaggravated and set me back to where I was before where I could barely walk on it. It's nothing that's gonna be like, 'Ah, like, he's out for, you know, several months" type of thing. It's a day-to-day, week-to-week situation. I like the progress that I've made so far."

Ekeler, 28, had an excellent opening game of the season, rushing 16 times for 117 yards and a touchdown while adding four catches for 47 yards.

He remains one of the NFL's most dangerous offensive weapons, with over 1,500 yards from scrimmage in both the 2021 and 2022 seasons and a whopping 38 touchdowns in that time. He also eclipsed 100 receptions (107) for the first time in his career last season, making him a fantasy football superstar.

That also makes his absence tough to overcome for the Chargers, especially as they try to recover from an 0-2 start. And it remains unclear when Ekeler will be able to return:

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"No timeline" on Austin Ekeler's return from his ankle injury, Brandon Staley said.

The star running back did not practice on Wednesday, another indication that he may miss Week 3's matchup against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday.

In his absence on Sunday, the trio of Joshua Kelley (13 carries for 39 yards), Elijah Dotson (four carries for six yards, two catches for 13 yards) and Isaiah Spiller (one carry for three yards) wasn't exactly inspiring in a 27-24 loss against the Tennessee Titans.

The Chargers have faced a lot of adversity since blowing a 27-0 first-half lead against the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Wild Card round last season. But even with key players unavailable and disappointing results to start 2023, the team—at least publicly—is remaining calm.

"Panicking is never gonna fix anything," quarterback Justin Herbert told reporters Wednesday. "And so, you know, it's up to us to be able to fix that as an offense and score more points. And you know, we believe in the defense, and sometimes we're gonna score a bunch of points. Sometimes, we're not, but it's up to us as a team to play together."

Getting Ekeler back will certainly help with that whole "scoring more points" thing.