Nagging injury keeps status of Williams uncertain for Friday
Wide receiver misses third practice with unspecified lower-body injury
Those lacking super-decoder rings and truth serum could not determine what ailed Chris Williams or whether the speedy wide receiver and punt returner would play in the Ottawa Redblacks’ next game.
“We’ll see,” Williams said on Wednesday when asked whether he could have played against the Montreal Alouettes if the game was on Thursday. “We’ll see.”
Fortunately, Redblacks-Alouettes is Friday night, so Williams has an additional day to recover. However, it wasn’t a good sign that he didn’t participate in practice for the third consecutive day.
Greg Ellingson has shifted over from slotback to replace Williams at wide receiver, while Khalil Paden took most of the reps in Ellingson’s normal slot with the first-team offence. Jock Sanders and Brandon McDonald split practice time as punt returners.
Head coach Rick Campbell said Williams, who leads the Redblacks and ranks inside the Canadian Football League’s top seven in total receptions, receiving yards and allpurpose yards, had “definitely” not been ruled out for Friday’s contest, and he promised an announcement on Thursday.
“He’s nursing a lower-body injury that’s not a serious thing,” Campbell said. “It’s a deal that’s just kind of nagging thing, so we tried to keep him out (of practice) to get him as close to 100 per cent as we can, and then we’ll see how he is tomorrow.”
Also working in Williams’ favour is that he’s not a CFL rookie and that he played in Redblacks’ season-opening 20-16 victory against the Alouettes in Montreal.
While he wouldn’t disclose the nature of his injury, Williams did acknowledge that it occurred in the last game before the bye week: a 29-26 overtime victory against the Calgary Stampeders. The CFL’s rookie of the year in 2011 and its top special-teams player in 2012 played a star role that night, catching seven passes for 162 yards and a touchdown on an 84-yard pass-and-run in the fourth quarter.
“We only have 18 of them, so they’re all important,” said Williams, who signed a one-year contract as a free agent during the off-season. "These guys know it. They’re going to be ready. I have no worries about that coming out and having a good game.
“We got a lot of receivers in the off-season and it’s one of the luxuries we’ve got. If somebody is unable to go or somebody is a little on the dinged-up side, we have the guys that can step in and make a lot of plays.”
Friday’s contest could be key for the Redblacks (3-2), who with a win against the Alouettes (2-3) would take a four-point lead on their East Division counterparts and would clinch victory in the season series, translating into an advantage in the event a tiebreaker was required at the end of the regular season.
Ottawa Sports & Entertainment Group announced Wednesday afternoon that Friday’s game is the second sellout of the season at 24,000-seat TD Place stadium and the 11th in franchise history.
The previous two games, against the Edmonton Eskimos and Stampeders, attracted slightly more than 21,000 and 23,000, respectively.