It’s been a rough season for the Edmonton Eskimos when it comes to injuries, and three more players have been added to an already long list.
It started on day two of training camp when linebacker Cory Greenwood suffered a season ending knee injury, then in Week 1 of the regular season it was an Achilles injury to linebacker JC Sherritt that cost him the season. In Week 3, running back John White saw his season end with a knee injury.
On Tuesday, the team announced that three more players won’t play again in 2017.
Long snapper Ryan King, defensive end Marcus Howard and offensive lineman Jean-Simon Roy have all suffered season ending injuries.
King tore his right ACL on July 28 playing the B.C. Lions, Howard ruptured his Achilles on August 10 in Ottawa and Roy was also felled by a torn ACL last Thursday in Winnipeg.
Injuries have sadly been a theme for the 2017 Eskimos who currently have 18 players on the six game injured list, and that is with the status of three players injured last week in Winnipeg not announced yet.
Linebacker Kory Jones, defensive back Brandyn Thompson and receiver Vidal Hazelton all left the game early and have not been on the practice field this week.
Brock Sunderland may be in his first year as a general manager, but he has been around football for 14 years and said he has never seen a team hit so hard with injuries.
He gives the credit for the Eskimos being able to weather this storm to the coaches and players.
“The coaches have done a tremendous job getting guys ready to go, and the players have done an incredible job dialing in and being focused and, when their number is called, they have produced.”
There has been some good injury news this week as the Eskimos prepare to host Saskatchewan on Friday night on the Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium. Receiver Brandon Zylstra, defensive tackle Almondo Sewell and defensive back Garry Peters appear ready to return to the line up if they can make it through a couple more practices.