ALLEN PARK, Mich. – Ezekiel Ansah has had questions about his age for a few years now, and those potential issues resurfaced again earlier this year when news outlets in Africa listed Ansah as two years older than his listed age.

Ansah, though, definitively answered the question of his age Friday in the Detroit Lions' locker room.

“I’m 28,” Ansah said. “It is what it is. Coming from Africa, anybody can say whatever they want to say. I don’t let that bother me.”

The questions started because of stories about the launch of his foundation in Ghana. In some of those stories, Ansah was listed at age 29, but he has had a birthday since.

Ansah’s age is an important metric for the Lions, as he is in the final year of his original five-year rookie contract with Detroit. Coming off a season where he was hampered by an ankle injury and had only two sacks – followed by a preseason where he sat out the entire time due to a knee injury, his age factors in.

Ansah deflected most of the injury questions Friday.

“It’s been a while since I’ve been on the field, obviously,” Ansah said. “And yeah, there will be some [things] to shake off, but I just come every day to work as I can, you know, just to be the best I can be on the field and just help my team win.”

The Lions need Ansah to be at his Pro Bowl level of 2015, when he had 14.5 sacks and emerged as one of the better defensive ends in the NFL. The team’s defensive line – specifically the pass rush – has been one of the major questions of training camp.

Ansah is expected to play Sunday against Arizona, but his long layoff could mean monitoring his snaps to make sure he remains healthy and in game shape.

He said, though, there isn’t more pressure on him because he’s in a contract year.

“Pressure? As a member of the NFL, everybody has expectations,” Ansah said. “You have expectations for yourself. But if you say pressure, I don’t know exactly what you mean. I’m just expected to do what I’m here for and I’ll just work as hard as I can to attain that.”