The Green Bay Packers were already facing questions about its defense's ability to keep up with the Dallas Cowboys, and those concerns may loom larger after Jaire Alexander rolled his ankle on Wednesday.
During the Packers jog-through, the All-Pro cornerback stepped on a teammate's foot and injured his ankle. This puts his availability in jeopardy for wild-card weekend as Green Bay travels down to Dallas to face the second-seeded Cowboys.
"So, it was kind of a freak deal yesterday," Packers hrad coach Matt LaFleur said Thursday via ESPN. "I mean, 'cause you guys saw we had mostly a jog-through and just, unfortunately [he] stepped on somebody's foot and rolled his ankle. I know he's doing everything he can to be available, and I'd say it's day-to-day and we thought it was best obviously today to have him not practice."
This is the third time this season that Alexander has been injured, and the previous two setbacks caused him to miss a combined nine games. Alexander sustained a back injury when he and practice squad quarterback Alex McGough collided, and then he hurt his shoulder on Nov. 5 against the Los Angeles Rams.
Packers reporters noted that while Alexander didn't talk to the media, they didn't notice any visible issues with his ankle or a boot.
When asked about how often LaFleur has seen a player sustain an injury in a half-speed practice, the coach said this situation is out of the ordinary.
"Well it's happened," he said. "It doesn't happen very regularly and it was just, it was a freaky deal. It's not like he was, I mean he was locked in, focused, doing everything we ask him to do and unfortunately just stepped on somebody's foot and it happened."
