Houston Texans Injuries: Arian Foster Won't Be Returning To Practice Tomorrow, Had Injections For Back

Back in OTAs a few months ago, Arian Foster strained his calf. The Texans announced that Foster would be on ice until training camp, and Foster himself stated it was "more than likely" he'd be ready for training camp when it got underway in late July. There were approximately two months between OTAs and the beginning of training camp, it was believed to be a minor injury, Foster's a veteran, and no one was terribly concerned.

Well, training camp has come and gone without Foster seeing the field. He's been on the PUP List since training cap began, and he managed to pick up a nebulous "sore back" while rehabilitating his calf injury. Not optimal, of course, but still not reason to flip out. In fact, I thought there was something to the line of thinking expressed by some readers here--that Arian may have been slow-playing his return to avoid the unpleasant reality of practicing outside in Houston in August.

Now? Now I wonder. Gary Kubiak spoke about Foster today:

(on RB Arian Foster) "Not tomorrow. I’m going to have to make a decision what I’m doing on Tuesday. As of right now, we’ve met with the doctors that have been treating Arian’s back yesterday, right before the game or a couple of hours before the game. It was determined that they want to give it a few more days or whatever that period of time is before they put him back out there. He’s still experiencing some soreness so the decision was made yesterday that he would not return tomorrow."

(on what is wrong with RB Arian Foster’s back) "Yeah, he just has some lower back soreness that is bothering him in his legs a little bit. He’s had some injections to try and alleviate some of the soreness and stuff. The way I understand it right now, we’re trying to get through the injection process, that it’s causing some discomfort and it’s something that’s going to take some time for him to get through.

This is the first time we've heard about injections and pain from his lower back moving down to his legs. I don't want to start throwing around words like "radiculopathy" and playing a doctor on the internet, so I'll refrain from pretending to have a clue about the current state of Foster's health. I will, however, pose a question that I received this afternoon from a friend whose opinion I value. Is it time to start getting worried about Arian Foster?