PITTSBURGH --Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker Alex Highsmith is back practicing with the team, and is ready for Week 1. Highsmith missed three weeks with a groin injury that plagued him in training camp, and has slowly ramped up back to full participation.
Head coach Mike Tomlin said that Highsmith is near full participation now and there is no worry about his Week 1 status.
For Highsmith, who described the injury as ‘frustrating’ the focus is not only getting back to full health, but making sure it does not pop up during the regular season.
“I’m feeling great. Just been doing a lot of rehab over the past few weeks, just making myself right,” Highsmith said. “They’re working me back in slowly, but I’ve been doing a lot of team stuff this week, so I feel really good, really close to 100%. So just being smart. It’s definitely frustrating that this thing happened again like it did last year.”
Highsmith suffered a groin injury twice last year, once during training camp and another during the season, which forced him to miss three games.
The Steelers had a rash of soft tissue injuries in 2024 that forced multiple players to miss significant time, including Highsmith, who still rounded into a productive year despite missing time with that groin injury as well as an ankle injury.
“I feel like I’ve done a lot, turned over a lot of stones to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Highsmith said.
Highsmith’s injury troubles in 2024 were an outlier in his career, and he hopes to put those behind him in 2025 as he rounds into game shape once again.
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