Eagles right guard Brandon Brooks has been open about the anxiety issues that caused him to miss games in the past and he’s continuing to battle the problem this year.
Brooks left Sunday’s loss to the Seahawks in the first half with what the team called an illness. Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a recurrence of his anxiety was the reason for his departure and head coach Doug Pederson confirmed it during a Monday appearance on WIP.
“Yeah, it’s connected,” Pederson said on WIP, via Dave Zangaro of NBCSportsPhiladelphia.com. “I’ll just say this, I’m not going to get into a lot of detail with that. Because, listen, this is a real life issue. This is not a football issue with Brandon. This is a real life issue that he has come out and publicly acknowledged and kind of shared his story a few years back. It’s something that he’s dealing with each and every day of his life. You never really know what triggers it. We’re here to support him, we love him. It is unfortunate that it happened, but it’s something that he deals with every single day. We’re just going to continue to support him.”
Brooks missed two games in 2016 because of his condition and it remains to be seen if he’ll be back for this week’s game against the Dolphins.