Right guard Kyle Long has been a new addition to the Bears' injury report this week with lingering effects of an old injury.
Long was held out of practice Thursday with what coach Matt Nagy called ankle soreness. The veteran offensive lineman has had issues with his right ankle since suffering a season-ending injury in November 2016. Long's ankle was severely damaged in a loss to the Buccaneers when 258-pound fullback Paul Lasike landed on the back of his leg on a poorly executed shovel pass.
Long needed reconstructive surgery to repair ligaments and tendons in the ankle and has fought to manage the injury ever since.
Nagy asserted Friday that he isn't concerned with Long's ankle and just wanted to get him some rest Thursday. But he acknowledged the challenges involved in managing Long's lingering ankle issues.
"That's the number one thing that we need to understand is that it is going to linger," Nagy said before practice Friday. "So there's that fine line of doing too much but yet knowing that, hey, we need to get those reps in practice. It's just too valuable to not practice. And he understands that. So it comes down to trust _ us trusting him and believing where his pain is at. And then just week by week, we'll evaluate it."
With Long unable to practice fully, rookie James Daniels is next on the depth chart at right guard and in line to see more reps with the first unit. Offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich didn't seem worried that Long's ankle issue would limit how much he can play Monday versus the Seahawks.
"My sense is he'll be good to go," Helfrich said. "He's on a weird schedule all the time. ... But I would expect that to be how it's going to go for the rest of the year."
