The Pittsburgh Steelers have now released their first official injury report of Week 5 ahead of their Sunday home game against the Philadelphia Eagles and the Wednesday offering shows that five players failed to practice due to ailments of some kind.
Not practicing on Wednesday for the Steelers were fullback Derek Watt (hamstring), linebacker Marcus Allen (foot), wide receiver Diontae Johnson (toe), wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster (knee), cornerback Joe Haden (illness), quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (not injury related), center Maurkice Pouncey (not injury related) and defensive end Stephon Tuitt (not injury related).
Watt and Allen were both injured in the Steelers Week 3 win against the Houston Texans. The same goes for Johnson even though he left that contest with a concussion. He has since been removed from protocol. Roethlisberger, Tuitt and Pouncey were all obviously given veteran days off on Wednesday and Haden was obviously out sick.
Unless anything new pops up the remainder of the week, Watt and Allen are likely the only two players in jeopardy of missing the Sunday game against the Eagles.
“Derek Watt has been running some,” said head coach Mike Tomlin on Tuesday. “We’ll see if he can do the unanticipated movement that encompasses football play, and if he can we’ll let that be our guide about potentially including him. Marcus Allen, the same thing with his foot injury. He ran in the pool (Tuesday), and he’ll have the opportunity to run on land I’m sure in the upcoming days, and we’ll see where that leads us.”
The Steelers were on their bye week in Week 4 so outside of Watt and Allen, the team should be healthy overall come Sunday.
