Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin hopes LB James Harrison OK vs New York Jets – NFL News
Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has confirmed that linebacker James Harrison is not hundred percent and the team will evaluate the situation regularly this week to ascertain his chances of playing in the home game against the New York Jets this Sunday.
James had a major knee operation in the training camp phase and missed the preseason campaign. He also could not make it to the season opener against the Denver Broncos, and according to the coach, now the player will be assessed for fitness before taken
back into the squad.
The linebacker has returned to practice from this Monday and even though he looks fine the team do not want to risk his injury further and therefore have left him for thorough evaluation.
The coach said:
"We will see where he is. We will follow the same protocol we did with him last week. We will work him up to activity and see how his knee responds to that activity and let that be our guide in terms of his participation."
Harrison’s absence in the Broncos game was further felt because safety Ryan Clark had to sit out of it to avoid aggravating his sickle cell trait problem because of Denver's high altitude.
According to the official:
"Obviously, those guys are capable of helping us. They're quality veteran players. They know how to play and, specifically in Ryan's case, not only his play but his communication and leadership. That remains to be seen and we're not going to assume anything."
The Steelers after convincingly losing the season starter against the Broncos are heading to the second game against the Jets this weekend and if Harrison and Clark continue to be on the sidelines it will not help the cause of the team for a win.
Harrison’s miss is particularly surprising because the player had boasted his chances of playing the opener as he had been practising along with his teammates throughout out the entire past week before being left out at the end of the week-long preparations.
The player had even scheduled a media talk for past Friday but somehow remained silent over the unknown subject he had intended to talk on.
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