Top overall draft pick Jadeveon Clowney has missed most of the past seven weeks due to injury, and the Houston Texans were expecting him back for Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles. It looks like Clowney’s grand return may be another week off, as news circulated Saturday about Jadeveon Clowney unlikely to play due to illness.
Texans coach Bill O’Brien said Friday “it’s not looking good” that Houston will see Clowney join JJ Watt again in the Texans’ starting defense. Clowney first returned last week against the Tennessee Titans after missing the previous six weeks with a torn meniscus. He went down in the first half and didn’t return.
The Texans were hoping to have Clowney in the lineup for a full game today against the Eagles. Philadelphia has the fifth-ranked total offense and sixth-ranked passing game in the NFL, so Clowney would have been a welcome presence. However, Clowney appears to have a flu or severe cold and is listed as questionable for Sunday’s game, leaving JJ Watt to anchor the Texans defense as he has been for weeks.
Clowney was questionable for last week’s game too, with the coaching staff listing him as a game-time decision. Having him in a similar place for Sunday’s Eagles game is therefore familiar, if not unfortunate, territory.
If Clowney does miss Sunday’s game against the Eagles, it will be the latest in a long string of illnesses, injuries and absences in his brief pro career. Clowney had a sports hernia surgically repaired in June, missed part of the preseason due to a concussion he suffered in August, had arthroscopic knee surgery on Sept. 8 to repair the aforementioned meniscus, and sat out the second half of last week’s Titans game.