There hasn\’t been a lot of news about Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Sean Spence over the last few weeks as he continues to rehab the knee he injured last year in the final preseason game against the Carolina Panthers. This past Friday, however, Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert updated Spence\’s status when he was a guest on Movin\’ The Chains.
“Sean Spence suffered a very serious, really a career threatening, injury last year in our last preseason game where he actually had some nerve damage in his knee,” said Colbert. “Fortunately, he is working his way back and it\’s a very slow process to get that nerve to regenerate, but there is slow progress, so we\’re encouraged. But that\’s sometimes longer than a year, so we just have to be patient, especially with a kid like Sean, who showed us a lot in the preseason time that he played last year. We\’re hoping for his sake and our sake that he can make it back.”
While Colbert\’s update on Spence didn\’t shed any light on when he might be able to return to action, it does appear as though he\’s made some progress in getting his peroneal nerve to regenerate.
Spence said several weeks ago that he intends to play in 2013, but as I pointed out not too long ago, he only has until Week 13 of the season, due to the rules of the Reserve PUP, to get himself ready to play. Being as he would most likely need to practice a few weeks prior to being removed from the PUP list to the active roster, one would think he would need to start doing that at around Week 11 of the regular season.
In short, Spence has roughly 14 weeks from now to begin practicing, so that\’s not a lot of time for an nerve injury such as his. The Miami product is reportedly working hard, however, so all we can continue to do is keep our fingers crossed for him.
