Report: Brian Cushing To Miss At Least One Game With Knee Injury

Tonight, PFT tweeted:

Per league source, Texans LB Brian Cushing (knee) will miss at least a week. It's been bothering him for the last two games.

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 23, 2014

The PFT report based on that tweet can be found here. From that story:

Per a league source, Cushing will miss at least one game to rest his knee, which has been bothering him for the last two weeks. The source says Cushing hasn’t been close to 100 percent, and that the knee has been drained a few times recently.

It’s the same knee in which Cusing tore the ACL last year.

The goal is to give Cushing some rest in the hopes that the knee will improve. With two games left before the bye (against the Titans and Eagles), don’t be surprised if he’s out until Week Eleven at Cleveland.

One slight flaw in PFT's report--Cushing didn't tear his ACL last year; he tore his ACL in 2012. Last year's season-ending injury was a torn LCL and a broken fibula.

After seeing his last two seasons end abruptly due to knee and leg injuries, the Texans held Brian Cushing out of nearly the entire preseason this year. As the regular season got underway, many a Texans fan noted that Cushing looked slow through the first seven games of the regular season, so this news is not exactly out of left field.

The concern now turns to whether Cushing can return to something resembling his pre-injury form this season. If he can't, the organization may have to face a very difficult decision this offseason. While Cushing's contract does appear to have some protection for him against injury, the Texans may be able to maneuver themselves to minimize the future cap hits.

Naturally, the hope is that it doesn't come to that. Here's hoping Cushing rests up and gets back to being the monster in the middle of Houston's defense he was, either later this season or next year.

UPDATE (10/23/14): Bill O'Brien has refuted this report. The intrigue mounts.

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