Bengals injury update: Marcus Hardison still out on Friday

The Bengals hit the field Friday for another light practice session ahead of their Sunday matchup with the Chargers.

As was the case last week, Friday is being used as more of a walk-through session with the team having a more high-speed Saturday practice. That seemed to work last week with the Bengals jumping out to a 24-0 halftime lead over the Raiders and a 33-0 score entering the fourth quarter. They'll need a similar effort against the Chargers this week, who are head and shoulders above that Oakland team.

The Bengals should be fairly healthy going into Sunday after everyone other than rookie defensive tackle Marcus Hardison was able to practice Friday. Hardison continues to be held out with an undisclosed knee injury. He'll almost certainly miss Sunday, and the fact that the Bengals haven't divulged any more information about his injury means there's no timetable as to when he'll return.

Then again, if it were serious enough to affect his availability for too long, the Bengals could simply place him on season-ending I.R. and call up DeShawn Williams from the practice squad. He had a great preseason and was frankly often played better than Hardison from what we saw, though Williams is limited to being a defensive tackle, whereas Hardison can play tackle and defensive end.

Everyone else should be good to go Sunday as long as there are no setbacks today or during Saturday's session. It is worth nothing that George Iloka, Reggie Nelson and Josh Shaw all were limited participants Thursday after missing Wednesday's session. Dre Kirkpatrick was also limited with a calf injury Thursday after practicing fully Wednesday.

With the Bengals having another quick practice session on Saturday, their availability for Sunday can't really be determined until then. Though, all signs point to the players who were limited this week playing Sunday outside of Shaw being a possible gameday inactive, even if he's healthy.