Bighill questionable to play versus Redblacks

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This article was published 03/07/2019 (2257 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The status of Winnipeg Blue Bombers linebacker Adam Bighill for Friday’s road game against the Ottawa Redblacks remains in limbo.

Head coach Mike O’Shea wouldn’t say definitively whether Bighill would play or not, which means his status won’t be revealed until this morning, when the team is required to issue its game-day roster. Bighill didn’t practise Tuesday and wasn’t made available following Wednesday’s closed workout.

“We’ll see. He practised today, ran around out there,” O’Shea said. “So, as usual, we’ll give him as much time as he needs and see where the roster shakes down tomorrow.”

Bighill looked no worse for wear in the Bombers locker room after Wednesday’s practice, seemingly a positive sign for a return. Even if he is banged up, he’s proven to push through serious injuries, including playing in last year’s West Division final with a broken thumb.

Clearly, the stakes aren’t as high Friday, but given there was no noticeable moment of injury — as well as O’Shea’s penchant to remain secretive with injuries, bad or otherwise — it seems a safe bet Bighill will be good to go. When he was out of practice, Kyrie Wilson moved from weak-side to the middle, with Canadian linebacker Jesse Briggs filling in for Wilson.

Bombers ink Santiago

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers added American running back John Santiago to the roster Wednesday.

The move comes days after first-year Bomber and Canadian running back Brady Oliveira suffered a broken ankle in Thursday’s win over the Edmonton Eskimos that required surgery.

Santiago, a former teammate of Oliveira’s at the University of North Dakota, attended Bombers training camp but was released prior to the start of the regular season.

“We liked him here at camp, just couldn’t keep everybody. And with drafting Brady and having Johnny Augustine here, too, it made the competition pretty tough, going against the roster, not just other players, really, in that battle,” O’Shea said. “So, once Brady went down, we’re just bringing back a guy we really liked, had a good camp.”

Harris not looking back

Andrew Harris said he’s forgotten all about his spotty performance against Edmonton, which included the rare occurrence of the Bombers veteran running back fumbling twice.

“I’m already over that game. It’s in the past and I’m just looking forward to having a better game this week,” he said.

Harris fumbled the ball in the second quarter, leading to a 10-yard field goal by Edmonton kicker Sean Whyte. Then, with under a minute remaining in the game and the Bombers clinging to a 28-21 lead, he was stripped again off a nice play by Eskimos defensive end Vontae Diggs. The turnover gave Edmonton one last chance to tie the game, but the Bombers defence was able to prevent the comeback, forcing a turnover on downs. 

“I’ve learned from my mistakes, from earlier in my career in junior. In this business, you have to learn quickly that, whether it’s good or bad — and a lot of times, even having a great game — you can’t ride on that too long or drink your own juice too much,” Harris said. “You’ve got to kind of forget that and go back to the drawing board and keep working hard and getting better every week.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

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