Stomach bug prompts Dolphins to stay out of joint practice with Eagles
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – The Philadelphia Eagles have just a few more days before they can go home.
The Eagles, in the final leg of a marathon stretch of joint practices with other teams, practiced on their own at the Miami Dolphins’ training facility on Thursday.
Several Dolphins players and staff members were dealing with stomach bug, first-year Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said after the team announced it would not practice Thursday “out of an abundance of caution as a result of a non-COVID illness.”
Both teams are scheduled to play their final preseason game on Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium.
“I hope everybody with the Dolphins is OK,” Eagles coach Nick Sirianni said. “We don’t have any symptoms on our side, so that’s why we’re out here practicing [Thursday]. … After discussing with our trainers and our doctors, we’re good to go and practice and everybody in Miami feels good.”
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McDaniel called his team’s health situation a “unique curveball” – and the Eagles surely feel the brunt of it, too.
The Eagles last week had two joint practices with the Cleveland Browns before their second preseason game on Sunday. They returned home to Philadelphia on Monday before traveling to Miami on Tuesday. And they are not expected home until after Saturday’s preseason finale in Miami.
“I don’t want to give a timetable for that,” Sirianni said when asked about the Saturday’s game. “Our guys are ready. Our guys are healthy and fine. Hopefully they feel better. And whatever the league tells us to do, we’ll do. We’re good on our end.”
McDaniel said the Dolphins canceled practice to prevent the spread of the stomach bug to others within the organization while also preserving healthy players trying to make Miami’s roster in the final preseason game.
McDaniel is not yet sure of what caused the Dolphins’ health issue.
“I didn’t want to have half the team drained out from a stomach bug, fight through the heat and then have depleted performance in the preseason game,” McDaniel said. “Because for a lot of guys, it’s the most important game of their career. And I hold a strong amount of value in that, and I didn’t want to compromise that in any way.”
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