According to a new report, it might be more than injury that is keeping Tampa Bay Buccaneers running back Bucky Irving off the field.
Irving has been sidelined since he suffered foot and shoulder injuries in Week 4. He returned to practice last week but did not suit up, and he is practicing yet again this week but has not progressed past being a limited participant.
Buccaneers legend Ronde Barber revealed that Irving will not play on Sunday despite his return to practice, and Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio has echoed that.
However, Florio adds that he doesn't believe Irving will be back anytime soon and he seemed to indicate that the reason isn't injury-related.
“I’m not so sure Bucky Irving is going to be back this weekend based upon something I heard when we were in Philadelphia,” Florio said to co-host Chris Simms (H/T JoeBucsFan.com).
"I’ll tell you off-air what I heard,” Florio added. “I want to be careful. It just underscores the very real existence of inside information. Because it’s something that probably shouldn’t be out. But I don’t think he’s going to be back anytime soon.
"It definitely is more information than what’s in the injury report.”
Florio did not provide more details than that.
This would seem to indicate that Irving might have an off-the-field issue that will keep him out of the lineup even longer, but that has obviously not been confirmed and we wouldn't even begin to speculate on what could be the issue.
This is just the latest turn in the Irving saga. He has been draped in mystery because of his injury, which has kept him out far longer than expected.
We had assumed Irving's extended absence was simply a result of a setback or the injury being worse than initially believed, but now we have to consider other factors based on Florio's report.
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