It wasn’t until Troy Fautanu asked for a knee brace during the preseason opener against the Houston Texans that the Pittsburgh Steelers coaching staff even realized he was injured. Can you really blame him for keeping it under wraps? He is entrenched in a battle for a starting role at right tackle, and it was his first time in NFL game action, even if it was just the preseason.
Regardless, he reportedly suffered a mild MCL sprain that held him out of the rest of the preseason. He told the media on Wednesday that he would be returning to practice on Monday and hopes to contribute in any way he can during the Week 1 contest. But when he returns, it sounds like he will be rocking the knee brace for a little while longer.
He was asked if he was going to wear the brace all season.
“I don’t know about the entire year,” Fautanu said in a video posted by Post-Gazette Sports on YouTube. “But until it starts feeling good, yeah.”
The timetable for Fautanu’s return based on the reported injury is typically one or two weeks. By the time the Steelers play their first game next Sunday, it will have been almost exactly a month. Offensive linemen obviously carry a little extra weight than most human beings, so a knee injury can be a little more difficult to return from.
During Wednesday’s practice, Fautanu could be seen in the warmup line doing dynamic stretches. There was also a video of him working on his pass sets, which looked pretty good. There was no obvious impediment to his movement, but he was wearing a brace on his left knee.
Some offensive linemen always opt to wear knee braces as a prophylactic. There are plenty of examples around the league of linemen that are effective with braces on both knees.
So, this won’t necessarily hamper Fautanu in any meaningful way, but it sounds like his plan is to shed the brace at some point. It is also interesting to hear him say he will wear the brace “until it starts feeling good,” which implies it isn’t all the way back yet.
