Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Diontae Johnson is apparently in the hospital right now, according to a Thursday Instagram post of his.
Johnson, who is entering his second season with the Steelers after being selected by them in the third-round of the 2019 NFL Draft out of Toledo, didn’t reveal any specifics as to why he’s currently a patient at UPMC. He only added a short caption to the picture.
“Ima bounce back 🙏,” Johnson included on his Instagram picture.
As far as we know, Johnson wasn’t scheduled to have any offseason surgery, at least based on what Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said during his end-of-the-season press conference.
“From a health standpoint, there’s probably not a bunch of new things to discuss with you guys as I stand here today,” Tomlin said immediately after the 2019 season ended. “Many of the surgeries and things that need to transpire already have and you guys have gotten updates along the way about guys who have been injured. We’re starting the process of exit physicals.”
While Johnson did have to deal with a concussion and an illness during the second half of his rookie season, those two weeks, Week 12 and 14, were the only times he was listed on the team’s injury report. Johnson, however, did talk about battling a few minor undisclosed injuries during one of media sessions later in the season during which he admitted that he had hit the proverbial rookie wall.
“Like, just keep taking care of my body like the way I’ve been doing because you’re gonna have little injuries that are naggy, or whatnot,” Johnson said. “It’s just what you do to maintain them, so they don’t keep lingering.”
It’s hard to speculate why exactly Johnson is seemingly currently in the hospital and what it is that he’s now needing to bounce back from, so we won’t Regardless, hopefully it’s nothing serious.
The Steelers annual OTA sessions won’t get underway until May so hopefully Johnson will be healthy enough to participate in that portion of the team’s offseason program come that time.
Johnson led all rookies and Steelers players in receptions in 2019 with 59 for 680 yards and 5 touchdowns.
