Pittsburgh Steelers Steelers Injury Updates
Steelers Starting O-Lineman ‘Optimistic’ He’ll Play Through Injury
Steelers rookie guard Mason McCormick broke his hand against the Bengals, but he's still hopeful to play through the injury versus the Ravens this week.
PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin revealed on Monday that starting right guard Mason McCormick suffered a broken left hand in Saturday’s loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. That isn’t about to stop the rookie from missing his first playoff game, though.
On Tuesday, McCormick was able to practice in some capacity while wearing a heavily taped brace on his left hand.
After practice, McCormick revealed he intends to play through the injury against the Baltimore Ravens in the Steelers wild-card round of the playoffs if he can.
“I’m definitely optimistic,” McCormick said. “It’s feeling a lot better already.”
Even if McCormick’s hand is feeling better, it will be far from fully healed by kickoff on Saturday night. However, he’s not planning to wear a cast if he does play since it wouldn’t allow him the functionality he needs to succeed.
Instead, he’ll likely wear something similar to what he did at practice on Tuesday.
“Not like a full-blown cast. I’m not gonna club it. If I can grip and play, then I’m going to,” McCormick said. “There will be some sort of brace.”
McCormick added that if he can’t grip the way he needs to, he won’t play, but that is something he’ll have the chance to test out the rest of the week.
The 24-year-old has suffered similar injuries during his football career but never this exact one, so there will be a learning curve to playing with his broken hand.
“I don’t know, to be honest,” McCormick said when asked how it will impact what he does. “I’m gonna go through practice this week. I’m gonna see what I can and can’t do and we’re gonna kind of take it from there.”
However, one thing is for sure: If McCormick can play, he will.
While he is a rookie, McCormick knows the playoffs aren’t easy to come by. He can already feel a shift in the locker room’s energy and he doesn’t want to miss it.
“I feel like guys are on the edge of their seats. It’s the playoffs now,” McCormick said. “Obviously, we haven’t liked how our last month went, but that doesn’t matter now.”
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