No one wants to say it, but there has to be concern in Houston about whether receiver Andre Johnson is injury prone. Last year he missed nine games because of a hamstring injury. Already, less than a week into camp, Johnson is forced to the sideline because of a groin strain. Not good.
Throw in that he missed spring activities because of arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and there seems to be a pattern here.
This latest injury will keep him out about “a week or so,” he said. Johnson fell awkwardly running a route on Sunday morning and had an MRI exam later that showed a “mild strain.”
“It just tightened up on me,” the five-time Pro Bowl receiver said. “I had hit the ground pretty hard, stretching out for a ball. That was pretty much it.”
Even Johnson seemed to make light of his propensity for being injured.
“Nothing that I’m not used to, doing rehab,” Johnson said. “It’s very frustrating, but it happens, man. I wish I had some control over it. Unfortunately, I don’t.”
Coach Gary Kubiak said Johnson wanted to continue practicing, but Kubiak took the cautious route. Johnson watched the rest of the outdoor half of the workout with a towel wrapped around his head then went to Reliant Stadium when the practice moved indoors.
“I felt pretty good, because he wanted to go back out there,” Kubiak said Sunday afternoon. “When a guy is telling you that, I don’t think it’s too bad.”
Johnson sat out three to four weeks after his knee surgery in May, and he turned 31 in July. After playing in all 16 games in 2008 and ’09, Johnson sat out three games late in 2010 with a sprained right ankle. Last year, he hurt his right hamstring against Pittsburgh in October then hurt his left hamstring against Atlanta in December.
“Everybody’s just saying, ‘Just be smart about it,’ ” Johnson said. “You don’t want to rush in, come back out here and have something happen again. We’ll be smart about it, and see what happens.”
