Bears outside linebacker Khalil Mack will have season-ending foot surgery, Bears coach Matt Nagy said Friday. He’ll have surgery next week.
Nagy said Mack’s injury became increasingly painful and could have potentially caused more damage were he to keep playing.
Mack hurt his foot in the Bears’ third game — the catastrophe against the Browns — and was hampered for the next month’s worth of games. Mack missed the last two games, losses against the 49ers and Steelers. It marked the second time in his Bears career that he’d missed time; Mack sat out two games in 2018.
The Bears’ signing of Cassius Marsh before the Steelers game and Bruce Irvin on Friday — both veteran outside linebackers — did not bode well for Mack’s timeline. He has not been spotted at practice since the 49ers game week.
Mack had six sacks in seven games after posting nine in 16 games last season. Since the Bears traded for him before the 2018 season — and made him the richest defensive player in history — Mack has 36 sacks in 53 games.
Mack was struggling with sitting out.
“It’s hard for him,” outside linebacker coach Bill Shuey said Monday. “I talked to him [Monday] morning and he’s in meetings and stuff. He’s definitely anxious to get back. This is hard for him. He loves to compete, and this is hard — especially the last two games that he’s missed, we haven’t won those. He always feels that there’s something he coulda done to help.”
