Clive Walford 'very close' to returning to practice

The Raiders selected Miami tight end Clive Walford out of Miami in the third round of the draft last May. He was immediately inserted as the team's top tight end target and looked very good in OTA's and minicamp. Then while participating in the pre-camp warm-up, he suffered an undisclosed injury that has had him out all nine days of training camp this far.

Up to this point, head coach Jack Del Rio has maintained that he is not concerned and the injury is not major. He also said the same of Rod Streater who has been on the Non-Football Illness list all of camp.

Overall Del Rio has been pretty mum on the status of players who are not practicing. But today, he opened up a little bit about the status of Walford and Streater.

"No (setbacks)," said Del Rio. "Two different scenarios. With one (Streater) we're trying to determine exactly what we're dealing with with the Non-football (illness) situation and the other (Walford) is very close. It's two different situations."

In Sunday's practice, Walford was taking light passes with a trainer on the side which was a good sign as well. The Raiders have a day off tomorrow, after which it seems like a real possibility we could get our first look at Walford in practice on Tuesday.


(sliverandblackpride.com)