Alex Anzalone injury update: Latest news on Lions LB status for Vikings game

He Detroit Lions have a winner-take-all Week 18 game against the Minnesota Vikings that will determine the NFC North champion and the No. 1 seed in the conference, which will earn a bye in the first round of the playoffs.

One player we’re keeping an eye on this week is linebacker Alex Anzalone, who is recovering from a He broke his forearm. in Week 11. Since his injury, the hope has been that the Lions can get Anzalone back, either near the end of the regular season or in the playoffs.

After the Lions’ Week 17 win over San Francisco 49ersHead coach Dan Campbell revealed that Anzalone is “very close,” but did not say whether or not he would play against the Vikings.

“We’ll see,” Campbell said of Anzalone’s status, according to Jeremy Reisman of Detroit Pride. “He’s doing well. It’s close. “It’s very close.”

On Wednesday we got an update on Anzalone’s status for the crucial Week 18 game, and it’s not good.

Alex Anzalone injury update

While Campbell left the door open for Anzalone to play this week, a report from Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network says Anzalone will not play in Week 18.

“Alex Anzalone, the playmaking linebacker with a broken forearm, played in that game (the Week 7 game against the Vikings), and he’s not going to play in this one,” the NFL source said.

Anzalone is still on injured reserve, meaning there are several steps to take to get him back. The first step is to designate him to return from injured reserve, which hasn’t happened yet, but he will also have to be activated after that.

But even if the Lions designate him to return this week, that doesn’t mean he’ll play, something we saw most recently with wide receiver and returner Kalif Raymond, who was designated to return last week but not activated.

It goes without saying how huge it would be for the Lions to get Anzalone back in Week 18, but the most important thing is to have him for the playoffs.

Based on Campbell’s comment, we would expect to see him when the Lions take the field for their first playoff game, whenever that may be. However, this is speculation and nothing has been confirmed yet.

Meanwhile, the Lions will rely on a combination of Jalen Reeves-Maybin, who returned to action last week, Trevor Nowaske and Ben Niemann to fill the void alongside Jack Campbell.

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