Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Cortez Allen missed nearly all of training camp after having minor knee surgery several weeks ago, but head coach Mike Tomlin hinted Thursday that the third-year player might be healthy enough to play Saturday night in the third preseason game against the Kansas City Chiefs.
According to Bob Labriola of Steelers Digest, Tomlin said on the Thursday edition of Steelers Live that there\’s a possibility Allen might see his first action of the preseason should things go well this week in practice.
Allen returned to the practice field last week, but did not play Monday night against the Washington Redskins. On Thursday, Allen told Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that his knee is improving, and that he\’s able to test it more and more. Despite all the optimism, however, the starting cornerback refused to guarantee he would play against the Chiefs.
“I\’m going to do what I can to get back on the field but first and foremost I want to make sure when I go, I have no setbacks,” he said.
While it would indeed be great if Allen winds up being able to get back on the field Saturday night, the last thing you want to see him do is rush it and suffer a setback. The Steelers will have a fourth preseason game left to play a week from today, so he\’ll still have an opportunity to get some playing time should he not be able to go against the Chiefs.
