As Will Campbell fell to the turf in Cincinnati back in Week 12, he immediately knew something was wrong. His initial reaction was simple.<\/p>\n
\u201cF\u2014,\u201d Campbell recalled.<\/p>\n
The Patriots rookie was ultimately carted to the locker room in the win with what was the first major injury of his football career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, just disappointed,\u201d he said. \u201cWhenever you hear a noise, it\u2019s not something that you want to hear. I think every athlete in every sport will tell you that. It\u2019s just difficult to process, but I had a lot of good guys around me on the team, the coaching staff, the training staff, that have gone through this injury before. They helped talk me through everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
The news could have been worse for Campbell, however, as he was diagnosed with a MCL sprain. Campbell was then placed on injured reserve and missed the Patriots last four games in an experience that the rookie called \u201cmiserable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first time I ever had to sit out a game for an injury in my entire life,\u201d Campbell said. \u201cIt obviously isn\u2019t fun, but it\u2019s a part of this game. Just tried to attack the rehab process and get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, Campbell took a major step towards his return as he practiced on the first day he was eligible to do so. He was listed as a full participant.<\/p>\n
Campbell and the team will see how things go throughout the rest of the week before deciding if he will suit up in the Patriots season finale against the Miami Dolphins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been working hard over these past couple of weeks just trying to get back, so to be able to finally get back out there [Wednesday], I\u2019m excited,\u201d Campbell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday is obviously my first practice against a human that\u2019s wearing a helmet and shoulder pads. We\u2019ll see how it goes\u2026 And then after that, we\u2019ll worry about tomorrow, and then Friday and so on and so forth.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Campbell\u2019s absence, Vederian Lowe served as the Patriots left tackle over the last month. Lowe allowed just one sack in two quarterback hits while manning the blindside of Drake Maye, who was thankful for his work while being excited to get his close friend back on the field as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome to see Big Willy back out there,\u201d Maye said. \u201cI just want to appreciate V-Lowe for what he did. Credit to V-Lowe for stepping in, stepping up and not blinking at all. Trusting his work and preparation.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook forward to having Big Willy back out there. Look forward to seeing him doing what he does best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As Will Campbell fell to the turf in Cincinnati back in Week 12, he immediately knew something was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":645443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[7,1167,249,52113,12136,2326,2094,6,208],"class_list":{"0":"post-645442","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-england-patriots","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-new-england","10":"tag-new-england-patriots","11":"tag-new-england-patriots-first-read","12":"tag-new-england-patriots-injuries","13":"tag-newengland","14":"tag-newenglandpatriots","15":"tag-nfl","16":"tag-patriots"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115819657646016880","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=645442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/645442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/645443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=645442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=645442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=645442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}