Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell provided a couple of brief injury updates ahead of their penultimate training camp practice, and it’s mostly good news.
Defensive back Christian Izien, who is in competition for the starting nickel job and is also depth at safety, suffered an injury recently and missed Tuesday’s practice. Campbell would not specify what the injury is, and he said Izien could miss the season opener, but not much beyond.
“It’ll probably be a little bit here. I don’t know if we’ll have
him for the opener or not. But we’ll have him,” Campbell said. “We’re going to get him here; if it’s not then, we’ll get him here early in the season at some point.”
Izien’s absence will certainly hurt a defensive backfield that is currently going through some injury issues. Starting safeties Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch continue to trend toward starting the season on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, Thomas Harper is expected to miss another week of practice, and Nick Whiteside has been battling some injuries as of late.
The better news comes about reserve linebacker Trevor Nowaske, who left Tuesday’s practice during individual drills. Detroit will play it safe with the veteran linebacker, but they aren’t concerned about him missing time.
“We think it’s just a little sprain or strain,” Campbell said. “So I think we’ll be okay here, let it calm down. So I’m not as worried about that.”
Nowaske has been one of the Lions’ core special teamers over the last few years. In the last two seasons combined, he has 590 special teams snaps on top of another 406 on defense.
We’ll have a more comprehensive injury report after Wednesday’s training camp practice.
