Aaron Rodgers said he had painful 'COVID toe,' but then said it was a joke and he just has a fractured toe

• NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers said he has "COVID toe" on Tuesday as a side effect from COVID-19.
• But the next day Rodgers said he doesn't have "COVID toe" and just has a toe fracture.

Aaron Rodgers said he had a painful toe condition called COVID toe during an appearance on "The Pat McAfee Show" on Tuesday. But on Wednesday, Rodgers said he doesn't have the condition and instead just has a fractured toe during a press conference.

The 37-year-old Green Bay Packers quarterback said he was just joking about having COVID toe as the only lingering condition from when he had COVID-19 earlier this month, which kept him out of his team's facility for 10 days while he recovered.

Rodgers previously — by his own admission — had been "misleading" about getting vaccinated after he tested positive for COVID-19 on November 3.

"I've been immunized," he told reporters in August in response to being asked if he was vaccinated. But the Packers had been treating Rodgers as an unvaccinated player throughout the season according to Ian Rapaport of the NFL Network.

COVID toe is a condition that can cause skin lesions on a person's toe after a COVID-19 infection. Multiple studies suggested that the condition is caused by an overly aggressive immune response against the virus and that it could last for months after COVID-19 recovery.

If he'd had COVID toe, it could have affected Rodgers' mobility and rest for the remainder of the NFL season

The condition is characterized by feet looking a little like they've been frostbitten, with purple, swollen toes and red, itchy plaques.

In one study, researchers found that people suffering from COVID toe had trouble sleeping and walking, Dr. Charles Cassius, the lead author on the study and a researcher at Hôpital Saint-Louis, in Paris, previously told Insider.

After Rodgers returned to the Packers on November 13, he appeared on the team's injury report with a toe injury the day before a game against the Seattle Seahawks.

Then, when the Packers faced the Minnesota Vikings this past Sunday, Rodgers had to leave the game in the second quarter to get treatment in the locker room. The Packers lost the game 34-31. In the postgame press conference, Rodgers said the issue was "very, very painful."

On "The Pat McAfee Show," Rodgers said, "I have an injury that's not going away."

Update 11/24/2021: This was updated to reflect what Rodgers said during his press conference.