Bears linebacker T.J. Edwards had surgery on his hand this week, after suffering the injury in a Week 9 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals. Head coach Ben Johnson made that announcement on Friday during a press conference

That doesn’t mean he’s headed for injured reserve, however.

“We’re thinking he’ll come back before we need to do that,” Johnson told reporters on-site.

The Bears will put a hard cast or a club over his hand, meaning he could play before it’s fully healed. He’s also dealing with a hamstring injury that has bothered him in recent weeks and forced him to miss games, so there’s no certainty, as of this story’s publication, about whether he’ll play Sunday against the New York Giants.

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“The hand’s not going to hold him back,” Johnson said. “That’s something that I think we’ll be able to cast up and he’ll be okay. Between that and, he had a hamstring as well. We’re working through both those things to get him back.”

Noah Sewell will start at the middle linebacker position if Edwards can’t go. While Tremaine Edmunds can also play well there, he has been excellent at the weakside linebacker spot in recent weeks and would presumptively play there to keep that good thing going.

Edwards has missed significant time this season. He missed Week 1 with a hamstring injury originally suffered late in the preseason and then sat out Weeks 3-4 after aggravating it in a Week 2 loss to Detroit. He was back and playing well until leaving the game late in Cincinnati, and had a marked impact on the Bears run defense. The Bears must pick up that slack moving forward, as it has been integral to stacking wins in recent weeks.

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