Chicago Bears receiver Devin Hester suffered a concussion in the first half of Sunday's 28-10 win against the Minnesota Vikings.
Hester displayed concussion symptoms midway through the first half and was taken back to the locker room for further testing that revealed he had in fact sustained a concussion.
Hester was just one of five Bears who suffered game-ending injuries.
"I normally don't write down injuries on a sheet, but we had so many I had to to remember them all," coach Lovie Smith said after the game. "Devin Hester has a concussion, and all the players I'm going to call out, none of them came back in the game, so that's always a concern when you don't come back in the game. Charles Tillman and Matt Forte both have ankle injuries and Chris Spencer and Lance Louis have knee injuries, knee sprains.
"Don't know the extent of the injuries except they were unable to come back in the football game."
Forte's injury came on a third quarter rushing attempt where he appeared to get his ankle caught under a pile of Vikings defenders. The officials initially ruled Forte had fumbled on the play and scored it a Vikings touchdown when Minnesota safety Mistral Raymond scooped up the football and ran into the endzone. However, a replay later confirmed that Forte's knee was down before the ball came out.
"I didn't see Matt (after the game) but hopefully he'll be back next week and we'll just all do what we did today," said Bears running back Michael Bush, who scored two touchdowns. "I've been down this road a million times. It's nothing new. I'll approach it the same way this week in practice. It's football, it's something I love and I'm just going to keep going at it. But it's tough seeing anybody go down. You want everybody to be healthy. It's a long season and we have five more games left, so the healthier we are the better this team is going to be."
Tillman left the game in the first half and had his right foot re-taped and stayed on the sidelines but never re-entered the game. However, Tillman kept his helmet on for much of the second half and was seen shouting instructions to his teammates on the field. Tillman appeared to be moving OK on the ankle as he paced up and down the sidelines but he was not available for comment in the postgame locker room.
The Bears have dealt with a rash of concussions in the past couple of weeks. Both starting quarterback Jay Cutler and rookie defensive end Shea McClellin left the Bears' Nov. 11 game against the Houston Texans and sat out the following week versus the San Francisco 49ers.
Louis suffered his injury as he was running down the field after Cutler had a pass intercepted by the Vikings' Antoine Winfield. Louis was blindsided by Minnesota defensive end Jared Allen. Louis stayed on the turf for a minute before walking off the field. He was examined by the club's medical staff on the sideline then was taken back to the locker room.
"I didn't even think it was his knee, I thought it was a concussion," said Gabe Carimi, who normally plays tackle but had to move inside to guard. "I don't know, it looked (illegal) but that's kind of how it is."
Carimi had been the team's starting right tackle before he lost his job this week to Jonathan Scott.