Bengals rookie running back Joe Mixon left Thursday’s practice early with an apparent foot injury, but it doesn’t sound like it will be too long before he’s back in action.
Mixon left the field and had members of the medical staff looking at his left foot before he took off his pads to bring his practice day to an end. Mixon stuck around for the end of the session, however, and told reporters after it was over that he got kicked in the back of the foot during a drill.
“Just trying to go hard and, yeah,” Mixon said of the injury, via Jim Owczarski of the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Geoff Hobson of the team’s website calls the injury a bruised heel and adds that Mixon said he could have returned to the field. Given the point in the calendar and the rising expectations for Mixon’s role in the offense right out of the gate, there was little reason for the Bengals to let him do that but there’s little reason to think much time will pass before Mixon rejoins his teammates.