Alan Robinson of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports Wednesday via Twitter that linebacker Stevenson Sylvester was off limits to the media today and that he was told not to discuss his knee injury. Sylvester did say that he hurt his knee during Saturday\’s “walkthrough” at St. Vincent College, according to Mark Kaboly.
On Sunday it was reported by Gerry Dulac of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Sylvester had torn the medial collateral ligament in his knee and that he could be sidelined three to four weeks as a result. Head coach Mike Tomlin said after practice on Tuesday that Sylvester has had a minor procedure performed on the knee and that he characterizes the linebacker as questionable at best for the Saturday night preseason game at Buffalo.
Obviously Sylvester will not play in either of the two remaining exhibition games and his status for the opener in Denver is highly in question at this time. Depending on the status of linebackers James Harrison and Jason Worilds, the Steelers very well could have three linebackers on the week one inactive list. While Sylvester is not a starter, he is a contributor on all of the return special teams units and has been working this past offseason at both the inside and left outside linebacker spots.
