A former Colts linebacker who spent three seasons with Andrew Luck in Indianapolis seems to think that Luck's injury might be more serious than the Colts are letting on. 

During a recent interview on NFL Network's Good Morning Football, former Colts player D'Qwell Jackson was asked when he thought Luck would be back on the field and he had ominous answer. 

"I don't think we are [going to see Luck again]. I don't think we are," Jackson said. "If you take a step back, if you look at most guys' injuries around the league, if they been out for eight, nine, 10 months, you're talking career-ending injuries. No one's mentioned that."

The crazy thing about Jackson's comments is that he made them on Oct. 28, a full five days before the Colts made Thursday's decision to place their star quarterback on injured reserve. It's not just Jackson who believes that Luck's future might be in doubt; former 49ers quarterback Steve Young also seemed to have some concerns about whether or not Luck will be able to return to the field.  

"I'm super worried about Andrew Luck and his future," Young said on ESPN's NFL Live on Wednesday. 

The concern from both players likely comes from the fact that Luck has been dealing with his shoulder problem for more than two years now. 

Luck originally injured his shoulder in September 2015 and at the time, the injury was so painful that he grimaced when he received a friendly tap from his then backup quarterback, Matt Hasselbeck. 

Of course, we didn't hear much about the shoulder after that because it moved to the back burner after Luck suffered a lacerated kidney in November 2015 that ended his season. Like all things with Luck, the Colts botched the recovery timeline. After the kidney injury, the team said he would be back in 2-6 weeks, but he never returned in 2015. Five months after the injury -- or 20 weeks later -- Luck said he still wasn't quite healed. 

During the 2016 season, Luck started regularly showing up on the injury report, which led Colts owner Jim Irsay to assure that Luck wasn't dealing with a serious injury.  

"There isn't some kind of chronic shoulder injury or anything like that, I promise you," Irsay said in October 2016. "There are no surgeries planned. He is fine and the shoulder is something that just disappears into the woodwork when he wins his next MVP or when he wins a Super Bowl."

Three months after that quote from Irsay, Luck underwent shoulder surgery and he hasn't played since. 

The belief that Luck's career could be over has taken on such a life of its own that general manager Chris Ballard felt the need to shoot down the idea during a press conference on Thursday.  

"I've heard all kinds of rumors about 'career-ending.' That's not the case here," Ballard said. "I've not got that from one doctor. Career-ending is putting him out on the field before he's ready to play. That's where you would be concerned. We're doing everything we can as an organization to give Andrew a chance, and Andrew's doing everything he can to have a chance to have a long-term career."

Ballard said that the Colts have been told that patience is the key when you have a player who's recovering from shoulder surgery. 

"The consensus from all the doctors is to continue rehab, to be patient and continue rehab," Ballard said. "The shoulder is subjective and after surgery everybody's different, everybody rehabs at a different way, so we're going to shut his throwing down and we're going to continue to rehab. We're going to continue hard rehab. We think for the long-term interest of Andrew, this is the best course of action."

As for Luck, he said that he'll come out of all this as a better quarterback. 

"I wish I was better and 100 percent this season, but that's not the case," Luck said in a statement. "I know I'll be better from this. I know I'll be a better quarterback, teammate, person and player from this, and I'm excited for the future."