Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin had some encouraging news about injured rookie running back Le\’Veon Bell Thursday during his press conference, but he still isn\’t prepared to give a firm timetable as to when he might be ready to play.
“The significant injury that we\’ve been working with the last several days is Le\’Veon Bell,” started Tomlin. “We\’ve got some clarity on that, he\’s got a mid-foot sprain. He won\’t be participating this week, but we are optimistic and encouraged. It has developed – how its developed over the last 48 or 72 hours – he\’s doing some things without discomfort, some rehabilitation-like exercises. It won\’t be surgically repaired or need to be surgically repaired.”
Tomlin went on to say that he didn\’t have a long-range schedule in regard to when Bell will be able to play again only that they will deal with it conservatively moving forward with rehabilitation.
“In the big scheme of things, that\’s encouraging news,” he said.
Bell suffered the right foot injury early in the Monday night preseason game against the Washington Redskins. As far as the early reports suggesting that he will be sidelined 6-8 weeks, Tomlin says he isn\’t sure where those reports originated from.
“I don\’t get caught up in those predictions,” said Tomlin. “Sometimes guys throw lines in the water just to see if something sticks. I don\’t know where that came from. That was never expressed by any of our medical experts. That\’s just today\’s NFL.”
