Jeff Wolfson

Harbaugh: Still no timetable for Gaither's return

by Dan Kolko View Comments

While about 99.9 percent of the conversation on John Harbaugh's WBAL radio show last night centered around the struggles of Joe Flacco (at least, it seemed that way), Harbaugh did get time to update the status of offensive tackle Jared Gaither.

Gaither has been out since August 5 with a thoracic disc injury in his back, and the Ravens had been hoping that he would be able to return by this week at the latest.

Harbaugh said yesterday that's unlikely to happen, and that Gaither is expected to miss this Sunday's game against the Browns.

"It's just been tough for us, been tough on him," Harbaugh said. "[It] was supposed to be, at the most, a two-to-six-week deal, I understood. So, six weeks is coming up this Wednesday as far as the outside track for this injury to heal. I guess he's doing a little bit better, but I don't anticipate him getting ready to play this week."

The Ravens came into training camp with high hopes for their offensive line. They returned all five of last season's starters - a group that played pretty well in '09 - and planned on moving Michael Oher from right tackle to left, and sliding Gaither over to fill the right tackle spot.

But Gaither showed up to camp 30 pounds under his 2009 playing weight, and he suffered the back injury the first week of practices.

The fourth-year tackle's absence has forced the Ravens to move Marshal Yanda from right guard to right tackle and have Chris Chester take over at guard - a workable but less than ideal solution.

Now, Gaither is stuck in a holding pattern, and Harbaugh said that the team doesn't have any type of timetable for his return at this point.

"We're not exactly sure what's causing it," Harbaugh said. "We'll probably have to get another opinion here. I know he's working very hard to get back. He's good about that. We got our fingers crossed for it, but we're not exactly sure where it's at right now."

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