As you were.
That's the message from Ben Roethlisberger's agent, Ryan Tollner, after a report last week quoted the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback as saying there's a chance he will need surgery on his previously broken right foot at some point.
"There's nothing new there," Tollner told the *Pittsburgh Post-Gazette* on Monday night. "The doctors elected not to do surgery and to let it heal. If it ever got worse, they might have to do something.
"Ben is kind of surprised that it's getting the attention. He hopes and expects never to have surgery on it. The foot was feeling better after the season, with the extra time this offseason, it's feeling great."
Roethlisberger, who told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review in a story published Saturday that his foot has healed, suffered through much of 2010 with the injury. He aggravated it during a game against the Buffalo Bills in November, saying "there were times during practice and games where I didn't feel like I'd be able to walk."
The seven-year veteran and two-time Super Bowl winner wore a cleat fitted with a pair of metal plates both in games and practices, right up through the team's loss to the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV. He didn't miss a snap last season because of the injury, throwing for 3,200 yards and 17 touchdowns.
"I could have had surgery (after last season), but according to the doctors, it would have been a really nasty process because of where the break was. It was better off trying not to do anything," Roethlisberger told the Tribune-Review. "It's going to be something where we're just going to have to, in essence, play it by ear. If it continues to be as painful as it was at the end of last year, then I'm going to probably have to have the surgery."
