In the past, Justin Fields has been fairly open about injuries he's battled.
A year ago and just days before facing Clemson in the Fiesta Bowl, the Ohio State quarterback said his knee was only 80-85 percent healthy, noting it was "probably not where I want it to be right now." Immediately after this season's Big Ten championship game, he revealed he thought his thumb "might be sprained."
Ahead of the national title game and after Fields got hit by Clemson's James Skalski with a shot that drew a targeting penalty, there will be no such revelations.
Head coach Ryan Day declined to offer any specifics on Fields' injury during a virtual press conference on Monday afternoon. He did, however, remove from the equation any possibility that the quarterback would sit out the game in a week against Alabama.
"I definitely expect him to play, but we don't get into specifics on injuries," Day said.
Fields, who was visibly in pain on the field and even cringed when sitting down for his postgame interview session, was deemed unavailable for interviews on Monday. As the Sugar Bowl's Offensive MVP, he was originally slated to speak with reporters to begin the week, but that won't happen for a few days. Day didn't appear overly concerned the effects of his quarterback's injury on Monday.
Immediately after the game, Fields had said the entire right side of his body was sore, that it hurt to throw the ball even 10 yards down the field and he expected to wake up feeling even sorer. That, per Day, wasn't the case.
"The next day, his comment to me was he felt better waking up I the morning than he expected," Day said.
So now, it's on to Alabama prep.
"We're just going to practice the way we normally practice," Day said. "Nothing's going to change."
