Akiem Hicks Returns; Khalil Mack Absence Only Precautionary

Bears coach Matt Nagy didn't think the back injury to Khalil Mack was serious enough to keep him from playing against Detroit, while both Akiem Hicks and Nick Foles were back at practice.

Defensive end Akiem Hicks returned to Bears practice on a day when their injury situation looked better than it has in the 46 days since they last won a game.

"Akiem was back out there today and I thought looked good," Bears coach Matt Nagy said.

Hicks missed the last game and left in the fourth quarter of the game before their bye week with Minnesota with a right hamstring injury. He practiced on a limited basis on Thursday, as did left tackle Charles Leno Jr. A toe injury had cost practice time last week but he managed to play the entire game with Green Bay.

The big injury question remaining was Khalil Mack's back, which kept him out of practice on Wednesday. He again missed practice on Thursday but Nagy didn't see a problem.

"So, Khalil is more than anything, it's more precautionary," Nagy said. "I don't think it's anything that we're real concerned about.

"You get into this part of the season and you want to make sure that you don't overdo certain things, so that's kind of where we've been at the last few days with him. But I feel confident that he'll be able to go."

Quarterback Nick Foles return and went through a full practice for the first time since his hip/glute injury against Minnesota and Nagy confirmed Foles will be the backup for Mitchell Trubisky rather than Tyler Bray.

"It would take something, you know, for him to say to me that he's not," Nagy said when asked if Foles was ready.

The only other player who went through a limited practice was tackle and guard Germain Ifedi, due to a calf injury. He has practiced on a limited basis both Wednesday and Thursday.

For the second straight day, the Lions were without wide receiver Kenny Golladay (hip), defensive end Da'Shawn Hand (groin), cornerback Jeff Okudah (shoulder) and wide receiver Quintez Cephus (non-injury related). Running back D'Andre Swift did not practice, either.

Linebacker Christian Jones (knee) and quarterback Matthew Stafford (thumb) were limited in practice.

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