Photo: Bluebombers.com
WINNIPEG — After leaving practice early on Monday, Blue Bombers’ running back Andrew Harris watched his team work from the sidelines on Tuesday as a non-participant.
Bombers’ head coach Mike O’Shea told reporters on Monday that Harris left practice early because he had an appointment. After Tuesday’s workout, he said that Harris would be taking it easy for the next couple of of weeks.
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“We don’t need Andrew to practice right now,” O’Shea said. “We need to get the reps for the young guys who are going to be with us in that capacity all year long and evaluate those positions. I would say this: Andrew is probably going to take it easy for the next couple weeks and then he’ll be ready to go when I ask him to be, right?
“If I asked him to practise today he would have practised today. If I ask him to practise tomorrow, he’ll practise tomorrow. But I’m not going to ask him to practice for a little bit because we need to figure out who is behind him and what they’re doing.”
Harris’ backup, Johnny Augustine is sidelined with an injury, which has opened up a ton of reps for a pair of young Canadian running backs, in Brady Oliveira and Kyle Borsa.
Harris was named the Grey Cup MVP and the game’s Outstanding Canadian in 2019, having led the Bombers to their first Grey Cup win since 1990. The 34-year-old Winnipeg native is the centrepiece of the Bombers’ offence, having broken the 1,000-yard rushing mark four times in the last five seasons (it’s worth noting that he posted 974 yards in 2016).
Oliveira was the Bombers’ second-round pick in the 2019 CFL Draft and played in two games as a rookie, before suffering a season-ending leg injury. The Bombers took Borsa in the fifth-round (39th overall) in this year’s CFL Draft.
Ed Tait at Bluebombers.com has a complete wrap of Tuesday’s action from Winnipeg in his Quick Hits note pack.
