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Last year, a strained calf caused Vita Vea to miss the entire preseason and the first three games of the regular season.
During Tuesday’s practice, which would’ve been Day 10 of training camp, Vea went down during positional drills. This time, it looked to be his left knee that was giving him issues.
He was later seen walking to the locker room with trainers afterward.
DT Vita Vea went down as he took on the double team and took a little bit to get up holding his left knee. He got up, but is limping. #Bucs pic.twitter.com/dJqXtbQ2ZL
— Gil Arcia (@GilArciaBUCS) August 6, 2019
Obviously, the extent of the situation is unknown at this time and we probably won’t have an update until at least Wednesday or Thursday.
If this proves to be serious and Vea were to miss time, it would be a huge blow to a defense that was going to revolve around the second-year player. The Bucs have already lost Jason Pierre-Paul for an unknown amount of time and Lavonte David just had minor surgery on his meniscus. Although the latter should be fine by the start of the regular season, this defense cannot afford to lose many - if any at all - starters.
We will keep you updated as the situation progresses.
UPDATE: Arians said he hasn’t see Vea but “looked fine” as he walked off the fields when he provided an updated on the status of the young lineman. For now, we just have to wait on word when the team checks him out thoroughly.