The Chicago Bears seem to have a bug going around their locker room that could leave them short a few players against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 17.
On Christmas Day, the Bears officially added cornerback Josh Blackwell — who helped save the day in Week 16’s win over the Green Bay Packers — to their injury report with an illness, creating some concern about his availability for Sunday Night Football.
While an illness disclosure might not normally raise many alarm bells, Blackwell is now the fourth player to land on the Bears’ injury report this week for that reason. Chicago has also had cornerback Nick McCloud, linebacker D’Marco Jackson and wide receiver Devin Duvernay listed with illnesses since Christmas Eve’s first practice of the week.
The Bears have the cornerback depth to withstand the loss of Blackwell if he is unable to play against the 49ers, but they may need to take extra measures with their healthy players to ensure whatever illness is going around does not make the problem worse.
Blackwell and the others will still have one more opportunity to practice on December 26 before the Bears put out their final injury report for Week 17’s game at the 49ers.
Multiple Packers Players Also Sick After Week 16 Battle
The Bears have not — and probably will not — share much information about their four sick players and what is keeping them off the field, but it does seem worth noting that their most recent opponent is also dealing with a rash of illnesses ahead of Week 17.
The Packers had four players of their own listed with illnesses when they released their final injury report for Saturday Night Football against the Baltimore Ravens, including starting wide receiver Christian Watson and backup quarterback Malik Willis. All but one of them — defensive tackle Quinton Bohanna — were ruled questionable to play.
That said, Watson, Willis and cornerback Bo Melton are all listed with separate injury issues along with their illnesses, while Bohanna is the only one without another injury.
Perhaps that is a good sign for the Bears’ four sick players and their chances of playing.
Bears Still Have Multiple Starters on Injury Report vs. 49ers
Illnesses are not the only thing holding back multiple Bears in this week’s practices.
According to the latest injury report, the Bears held out starting wide receiver Rome Odunze (foot) and starting linebacker T.J. Edwards (glute) for a second consecutive practice on Christmas Day. They also limited several other starters, including center Drew Dalman (ankle/hand) and Pro Bowl free safety Kevin Byard III (ankle).
The Bears won’t have major issues so long as they can clear most of their limited players from the injury report before Sunday’s kickoff, but it would hurt to not have Edwards in addition to Odunze — who is dealing with a foot fracture that has sidelined him for three games. Edwards has already missed seven games this season with other injuries.
The Bears (11-4) will kick off against the 49ers (11-4) at 8:20 p.m. ET on December 28.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Bears Get Concerning Injury Update for 49ers Game on Christmas appeared first on Heavy Sports.