Injury questions for Doug Pederson today, so his Friday presser was a bit testy.

The discussion really centered around Darren Sproles’ hamstring injury and setback, plus the decision to waive DeAndre Carter without having another clear cut punt returner on the roster.

Here are the first few questions and answers in their entirety:

In RB Darren Sproles’ case, why has there been so much mystery surrounding his injury and his status?(Zach Berman)

Pederson: Mystery. Has there been mystery?

Q. I guess in terms of how long it would be for him to be out.(Zach Berman)

Pederson: We want to make sure the player is a hundred percent and then we feel good to put him back out there. That’s the thing that we have to decide. A lot of communication even with the player, and to make sure that we’re doing our due diligence by the players, no matter who they are, that they’re healthy before we put them back out there.

Q. Why isn’t Sproles a hundred percent? (Jeff McLane)

Pederson: Why isn’t he? Well, he had a setback this week, but going into this week he was.

Q. For a hamstring strain typically, it’s only a few-week injury. Why is this one taking so long? (Jeff McLane)

Pederson: People heal differently, Jeff. Everybody is different. I’m not a doctor, so I know we’re going to go down this path today, and you’re not going to get a ton from me. I’m just telling you people heal differently. I’ve got an Achilles problem right now, and I’m healing it differently.. (inaudible question). It kind of puts me in a bad mood when I come in here.

Q. Are you optimistic that Sproles will play this year?(Nick Fierro)

Pederson: I am optimistic that he can play, yes, I am. That’s the God’s honest truth.

Q. What kind of information are you getting from the medical staff though, because on Monday you guys released WR DeAndre Carter and thinking, I guess, Sproles is going to return, and now you don’t have a punt returner. Are you getting the information from the medical staff that you hoped to?(Jeff McLane)

Pederson: I’m getting information from our medical staff, I’m getting it from our doctors and I’m getting it from the player. And quite frankly, the bottom line is how the player feels, where is he at in his return to play, and we felt very, very comfortable moving forward to make that decision.

Q. So what happened on the practice field where he had a setback?(Tim McManus)

Pederson: He just had a setback.

Q. Who’s the punt returner going to be? (Jimmy Kempski)

Pederson: I’m not going to disclose that.

Alright.

Moving on with some other notes:

  • Sidney Jones’ recovery is going “good, yeah, real good.”
  • Lane Johnson’s knee has responded “good, yeah, real good.”
  • Jalen Mills is “probably a little further away” than Sidney Jones.
  • Golden Tate can contribute in the return game: “I think it’s something that we’ll look at, but again, it’s all part of being asked to do certain things. We’ve just got to be careful with it.”

I will update “this space” when we get the final injury report.

Edit:

Jones and Mills are out. Johnson is questionable.