INDIANAPOLIS – Anybody who watched Mykel Williams last year for Georgia could tell he wasn’t 100 percent after injuring his ankle in the season-opener against Clemson.

But little did anyone know how bad the injury was.

“The whole year, I never was healthy,” Williams said Wednesday at the Indiana Convention Center. “I actually re-injured it multiple times throughout the year. I didn't practice until the week of the Texas game. I was messed up pretty bad.”

According to Williams, most of his weeks during his junior season were spent in rehab just so he could get on the field.

“I was going to treatment, trying to rehab my ankle the whole practice,” added Williams, who said he never came close to being 100 percent during the season.

“I was less than 70 percent, less than 60,” he said.

Fortunately, he’s healthy now.

Nevertheless, because of the long rehab, Williams said he is not expected to participate in any running or field events at the NFL Combine when the defensive linemen and linebackers take the field Thursday at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Williams will wait until Georgia’s Pro Day on March 12 to show scouts and teams what he can do.

“Because I played injured this whole year, so coming out of my ankle, I decided to take the first two or three weeks to rest my ankle and try to get it back up under me. So that delayed my training,” Williams said. “So, I got a late jump, so that's why I'm going pro day instead of come out.”

Williams admits it was frustrating.

“Extremely. Especially dealing with the media and how you guys try to portray things,” he said. “It was extremely frustrating. Y'all guys not knowing the full story.”

Still, Williams is hopeful the injury will not hurt him in the long run.

Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network still projects Williams as a first-round draft pick. Williams believes he will be, too.

“They see I got that dog in me,” he said. “They understand what they're watching.”

Teammate Smael Mondon said he’s proud of the work that Williams put in.

“I feel like he showed his toughness and showed his, like, care for the team,” Mondon said. “You know, a lot of guys would have tried to sit it down or shut it down or like sit it out, but he kept playing, you know. He kept trying to help the team when it came to goals. So, I feel like that just showed the type of team player he is.”

Williams said the injury taught him a lot about himself as well.

“I learned that I have a different type of grit about myself, that I can push through pain, even no matter how I'm feeling like it, I can still go get it done,” Williams said. “Teams are loving that I did. They say most guys that were kind of in the position I was in would have sat down and called it a year. But I still played it and stuck out there with my guys, so they respect that about me.”