Anthony Richardson most recently got injured in a freak locker-room accident when a resistance/stretch band snapped back and struck him in the face, causing a fractured orbital bone near his eye during pregame warmups.

What exactly happened?

  • Richardson was doing pregame warmups in the Coltsā€™ locker room using an elastic/resistance band attached to a fixed object (described as a pole or apparatus).
  • The attachment point failed, the band whipped back, and it hit him in the eye/face area with significant force, leading to an orbital bone fracture.
  • The injury occurred just before a game against the Arizona Cardinals, and he was ruled out and taken to a hospital for evaluation and treatment.

Severity and medical fallout

  • Doctors diagnosed an orbital fracture, which is a break in the bone around the eye socket, serious enough to require placing him on injured reserve (IR), sidelining him for at least four games.
  • Reporting from local outlets indicates he later underwent surgery on the orbital bone but avoided direct damage to the eyeball itself.

Team and timeline impact

  • After the injury, Indianapolis placed Richardson on IR and turned to Daniel Jones as starter, with Riley Leonard moving into the primary backup role while the team explored adding another quarterback.
  • The earliest reported return window was later in the season (after at least four missed games), with expectations he could resume his backup role once fully cleared.

Context: not his first injury

  • Earlier in his career with the Colts, Richardson also suffered a Grade 3 AC joint sprain in his throwing shoulder during a game against the Tennessee Titans, which already cost him extended time and contributed to a reputation for being injury-prone.
  • Across his first seasons he dealt with multiple issues (knee soreness, a concussion, shoulder problems), making this fluke eye/orbital injury part of a longer, frustrating run of health setbacks.

Forum and ā€œtrending topicā€ angle

  • On fan forums and social discussion threads, many commenters frame this as Richardson being ā€œsnakebitā€ by injuries, pointing out that even when heā€™s not hit in a game, unusual situations seem to find him.
  • There is also debate over his long-term future with the Colts, with some fans arguing that, between onā€‘field inconsistency and repeated injuries, this season felt like a makeā€‘orā€‘break opportunity before this latest setback.

TL;DR: Anthony Richardsonā€™s latest injury came not on a hit in a game, but when a resistance band snapped during pregame warmups, smashed into his face, and fractured his orbital bone, sending him to IR and reigniting concerns about his bad injury luck.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.