Bears defensive tackle Akiem Hicks missed practice Thursday with Matt Nagy called a sore foot, but the coach expects him to return to training camp Friday.
“We just wanted to make sure that everything was good,” Nagy said before practice, “and that looks like that’s the case.”
Hicks was in attendance for the Bears’ first practice — a walk-through — on Wednesday. He didn’t practice Thursday, though. The team did not provide a reason at the time; Nagy, in his comments before the Thursday practice, did not volunteer that Hicks would miss practice.
Hicks will be among the Bears’ players to receive regular rest days — the team used to call them “vet days,” but has changed the verbiage to “load management” — but Nagy expects those players to watch practice in person. Hicks did not Thursday.
Hicks is entering his sixth season with the Bears and is in the final year of a four-year, $48 million contract. He had 3 1⁄2 sacks in 15 games last year. In 2019, he played only five games because of a grisly dislocated elbow he suffered in the first drive against the Raiders in London.
