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Second-year defensive tackle Bilal Nichols has a broken hand, according to head coach Matt Nagy, but Nichols will avoid going on to the injured reserve list.
Coach Nagy confirms Bilal Nichols has a broken hand - says he does not believe IR is a possibility and that the team is still working through next steps.
— Chicago Bears (@ChicagoBears) September 19, 2019
Nichols left the game Sunday against the Denver Broncos and didn’t return, he was later seen in the locker room by reporters with a cast on, but Nagy initially said that it was a wrist injury but that the team would know more over the next couple of days.
Well now at his Thursday press conference he confirmed that it was a broken hand.
Without announcing a timetable, it would be expected that Nichols will miss a few games, at least, but last season Leonard Floyd played with a club on his broken hand for the first month or so of the season, but was less effective.
Nichols recorded three sacks last season as a rookie fifth-round pick out of Delaware and was seen as a rising star. He started the first two games this season. Roy Robertson-Harris, who is also off to a hot start, will assume the starting role.