Rams wide receiver Puka Nacua has missed the last two games with a hip injury. He is getting closer to a return.
“I’m taking it one day at a time, but I felt good being out there, training fully today for the first time,” Nacua told reporters Thursday. “I get under my feet, I hear all the play calls. It’s not as foreign as it seemed from Matthew Stafford, but he’s definitely in full flow and rhythm. It’s nice to be able to hear that play call in the huddle. I have to make sure I have my stuff wrapped up beforehand so I can really focus on what he’s saying.”
Nacua said twice Thursday that he fully participated in training; officially it was listed as restricted.
He first noticed the problem a few weeks ago in training.
“Just during certain changes of direction, some things in my hip just didn’t feel right,” Nacua said. “It was causing me some pain and some restriction in some of my movements. I was trying to get through it, but I definitely started feeling sharp pains that took me down.”
Now he is able to do what he did before.
“One hundred percent,” Nacua said. “I’ve been working on that, like accelerating, changing direction. Today, being a full participant in training, I was definitely able to overcome some of the rust.”
It was described by the Rams as a hip issue. There is talk elsewhere of a groin injury. It’s basically both.
“The hip area, that right side, front of the hip and groin,” Nacua said. “I really felt it in that hip. Then with all the connection, the understanding… everything in that hip area was connected to all the parts of everything, the core and the change of direction and things like that, so really in the right hip and groin area.”
Whatever the specific problem, it seems to resolve itself. And the Rams could benefit from the boost that would come from Nacua’s presence on the field Sunday at the Eagles.
Gn sports
