Lions guard Halapoulivaati Vaitai has not played yet this season and the team is not expecting him back before the year is out.
Vaitai had back surgery after being injured in the team’s preseason finale and head coach Dan Campbell gave a pessimistic update on his chances of returning to play before the end of the season.
“I would say that would be very slim to none as of right now,” Campbell said, via Kyle Meinke of MLive.com. “But the surgery went well and he’s doing great. That’s just one of those long-term [injuries]. If you ask me right now, I would say it’ll be hard to get him back.”
Evan Brown has been the primary starter at right guard since Vaitai went down this summer and it appears he’ll remain in that role for the long haul.