Mike McLaughlin confirmed that he has been diagnosed with a sports hernia, an injury that the rookie fullback suffered during practice last Monday.
"I knew something was definitely wrong because when you can't go full speed out there, you know your body well enough to know that there's something wrong," he said. "At the time, I didn't know what it was. But obviously, I got a little more educated."
McLaughlin, who said he is learning more about the condition, said he is hoping to avoid surgery, which he characterized as a "last case" scenario.
"I think it can be bad," he said. "But really, I'm just trying to take it day-by-day and see if treatment can take care of it."
The team placed McLaughlin on injured reserve last Tuesday, a disappointing outcome for the Boston College product.
"For a guy like myself who needs to prove himself day in and day out, to sit in the training room and not be out there really competing with the other rookies and guys on the team, it's really disappointing," he said. "But this is not one of those things that you can just tough out. If you can't run, you can't play. It's not like a shoulder. But it's definitely frustrating. That's the way football is sometimes."