"To borrow wide receiver Anthony Gonzalez's phrase, he is "taking the next step." There's just no telling whether it will put him on a path leading to FedEx Field on Sunday night, when the Indianapolis Colts meet the Washington Redskins.

"Honestly, it's really up in the air," Gonzalez said of his playing prospects Wednesday, when he participated in some but not all drills during his first full on-field workout since suffering a high ankle sprain in the Colts' season opener Sept. 12.

High ankle sprains typically require four to six weeks to recover. Gonzalez is at the short end of that spectrum. He has progressed from the training room to the weight room to straight-ahead running, and now to the practice field. Through it all, he has participated in meetings and off-field work and spent much of his time away from practice studying film of the NFL's best receivers. So whenever he is cleared, he will be ready to go.

It's just hard to say when that might be. How his ankle feels depends on when you ask. This week will be a day-to-day, even a drill-to-drill, test.

"Some days it feels good. Some days it doesn't," said Gonzalez, who suffered a season-ending knee injury during the first quarter of the Colts' 2009 season opener. "Some things cause you to pick up a lot of soreness. Some things, for whatever reason, don't bother you at all.

"It's really just trying to adjust to the way your body is now as opposed to what it is normally. The reality is high ankle sprains are not 100 percent (healed) for almost a year. Eventually, your body just adjusts and the soreness is at a level you can sort of go through.""