As is the case with most teams finishing up the grueling process of two-a-days, Brian Kelly gave injury updates on the fairly large cast of characters that sat out practice yesterday, among them Anthony McDonald, Andrew Nuss, Matt Romine, Kyle Rudolph, Dan Wenger and Ian Williams.
The good news? None of the injuries seem to be major ones.
“Nobody that I’m concerned about going into Purdue,” Kelly said. “Just pretty much your typical two-a-days, guys are banged up.”
Kelly announced that Kyle Rudolph would be held out through the weekend, resting the nagging hamstring injury that’s plagued him throughout much of fall camp.
“I think the only guy that you guys would probably be interested in is Kyle Rudolph,” Kelly continued. “We’ve decided to kind of shut him down through the weekend because we’re going to have Saturday off and then come back full go on Monday.”
Both Romine and Wenger continued to sit after suffering concussions last week, though Kelly made it seem more precautionary than anything.
“We’re being very cautious with them because of the heat, but they’re making good progress,” Kelly said.
One of the bigger worries was a potentially severe knee injury suffered by inside linebacker Anthony McDonald, who got rolled up during a goal line drill. Kelly downplayed the injury, attributing it to a hyper-extension.
“He’s sore right now until that bruising settles down. Believe me, we check and recheck,” Kelly said. There’s no laxity in the knee, there’s no end points, all those things you concern yourself with. Big swelling, we had none of that.”
Sean Cwynar replaced Ian Williams in the middle of the defensive line as the senior battled a toe infection. Taylor Dever took all the reps at right tackle as Andrw Nuss was held out of practice as well.