Clay Matthews Injury: Packers’ Mike McCarthy rules linebacker out against Titans

The Green Bay Packers have been without outside linebacker Clay Matthews over the past two weeks as the star pass-rusher sat out the games against the Falcons and Colts with a hamstring injury.

In week 10 against the Tennessee Titans, the Packers would love to have Matthews and his athleticism back to help defend against quarterback Marcus Mariota. However, that will not be the case.

During his Friday morning press conference, head coach Mike McCarthy stated that the team will rule Matthews out on Friday’s injury report and that he will not play this Sunday. This will be the fourth game overall that Matthews has missed this season due to his hamstring, as he also missed the team’s week three win over the Detroit Lions. This will likely mean a heavy workload for Peppers and Datone Jones once again this week, which will challenge Dom Capers to come up with ways to put pressure on and contain Mariota.

McCarthy did note, however, that the team does not believe that Matthews’ injury is a long-term issue. This suggests that he may be able to play in next week’s game at Philadelphia.

Matthews recorded sacks in each of the first three games he played (weeks 1, 2, and 5), and those three sacks leave him ranked third on the team behind Nick Perry (6.0) and Julius Peppers (3.5).

McCarthy also addressed a few other injured Packers, noting that the expects Randall Cobb to be fully available and that James Starks is nearly ready to play. Meanwhile, Jared Cook needs to practice on Saturday before he will be assured of playing on Sunday.

Stay tuned for the team’s full injury report later today.