The Pittsburgh Steelers just wrapped up their Tuesday training camp practice about 45 minutes ago and while head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t give a detailed injury report afterwards, he did say that outside linebacker Anthony Chickillo was unable to finish the session.
“He had a little strain in his hip flexor, but I’d imagine that will day-to-day,” Tomlin said of Chickillo. “We’ll get him evaluated and I’ll have more information for you tomorrow, or he’ll be available tomorrow. We’ll play it by ear and see where it goes.”
The Steelers lines at outside linebacker are quite short right now as veteran James Harrison was back in his familiar grey sweats on Tuesday and Keion Adams and Farrington Huguenin are still not working in team drills due to a minor injuries. After Chickillo left practice, the Steelers were left with Bud Dupree, T.J. Watt and Arthur Moats as active participants. It will now be interesting to see if another outside linebacker is added on Wednesday ahead of practice.
While rookie running back James Conner was back in pads on Tuesday after being out for more than a week with an AC sprain in his left shoulder, he really didn’t do much and it’s unclear if he’ll play in the teams Friday night preseason opener.
“He was a partial participant today,” Tomlin said of Conner. “We’ll see if hes capable of doing more tomorrow. We wont make any decisions regarding participation in the game until we have to.”
Steelers tackle Alejandro Villanueva didn’t practice on Tuesday and thus Tomlin was asked if he was evaluated for a concussion after the Sunday night practice at Heinz Field.
“He was, he was,” Tomlin said, “I don’t know where he is in the process, but he was.”
Steelers second-year tackle Jerald Hawkins missed Tuesdays practice and Tomlin said that was because he had an excused absence.
As for large group of players who sat out Tuesday’s practice, Tomlin would only say this.
“Some guys working themselves back into participation in different forms or levels of participation. We’ll continue to push those guys back toward participation.”
