What KC Chiefs’ Frank Clark said about his illness that’s kept him out of practices

Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark, who has been out of games in the past because of a stomach ailment, has missed multiple practices in the last few weeks with the team saying he was sick.

So how worried is he that his latest health issues will linger into the 2022 regular season?

“Not at all,” Clark said with a smile Friday, speaking in the locker room following a limited practice with the team.

Clark said what he’s experienced in the last few weeks has been different. First, he said he had COVID a week ago, which kept him out of drills. After that, he logged a full practice Wednesday where he “felt good” but then experienced some dehydration later in the day.

“I didn’t have all my fluids and stuff in me. Just a precaution,” Clark said. “They told me, ‘Make sure you take Thursday off.’ That’s our running day, big third down day. So they’re like, ‘Take Thursday off and make sure you’re back Friday.’ As you saw, I was back.”

Clark also said this summer was a grind for him. He said it was the first time since his final season with the Seattle Seahawks in 2018 that he’d been through a whole training camp, making it a “long camp, long season.”

He says he expects to be full strength for Sunday’s opener at Arizona, as the team also did not give him a game status designation on Friday.

“More than ready. It seems like it’s been forever since that last game,” Clark said. “The last game we played in left a sour taste in our mouth, man. The Cincinnati Bengals, they whooped on us. It’ll just feel good to be able to get get out there regular season, start of a new season, regular season, the COVID stuff’s out the way, all that stuff’s out the way. We can go back to playing regular football and having a regular locker room and just enjoying it.”

Clark also spoke Friday about resolving his gun case in Los Angeles this week. On Wednesday, he pleaded no contest to two counts of misdemeanor possession of an assault weapon while getting sentenced to one year of “informal probation” with 40 hours of volunteer community service.

He described getting the matter behind him as a “huge relief.”

“Like I said before, you make a mistake, it’s about how you stand up and be a stand-up guy about it — not about the if, ands or buts about it. It’s about you being a stand-up guy and making it right, and that’s what I did,” Clark said. “Let the system play out how it’s gonna play out, like I always said, and it played out in my favor, thank God. Just thankful to be moving forward now.”

Clark still could potentially be subject to action under the NFL’s personal conduct policy. An NFL spokesperson, when asked about Clark’s situation Friday, told The Star, “We have been monitoring developments in the matter which remains under review.”

On Friday, Clark was asked whether he was confident that the matter would be behind him as it related to the league.

“At the end of the day, I haven’t dealt with the NFL yet, so I can’t be confident in whatever. That’s gonna play itself out. I can’t think about that. I can’t control none of that,” Clark said. “I did my part on what I can control, and I made it happen on that end. Whatever happens going forward, that’s just got to happen.”

Clark said he was looking forward to keeping his concentration more on the field following the case resolution. That also comes following an offseason where he dropped weight and gave up alcohol to get himself in better shape.

“I wasn’t as focused as I should have been last year, like I said before. There’s a lot of things that I could have done a lot better, but I had a lot of (stuff) on my mind,” Clark said. “I was going through a lot of stuff, you know what I mean? And that happened. That’s regular. That’s a human-being nature.

“But like I said, it’s past me now. So from this point on, I’m able to focus on football, my teammates and just being the best teammate that I can be.”