More from Day 10: "The Point After" audio analysis ($)

Starting left tackle Martesse Patterson spent Monday's afternoon practice working in the "pit," the area reserved for Purdue's injured players.

And that was a welcomed sight.

After Patterson crumbled to the turf with an apparent left knee injury in the morning practice of the Boilermakers' two-a-day, there was considerable concern it could be the dreaded ACL.

But, after early evaluations, it doesn't appear to be, Coach Darrell Hazell said.

"Not as bad as we thought," Hazell said. "Just going to take it hour-by-hour, just evaluate what the knee is doing. It had a little inflammation, but we don’t know if the inflammation was there before he tweaked it. We looked at the film, (and the play) didn’t look bad on film. Just take it day-by-day."

Patterson was injured on the third play of the first team period in the morning. David Blough was dropping back to pass, and Patterson was getting pressure off the edge from defensive end Austin Larkin. Hazell said Patterson's feet got tangled, and he went down. After being attended by athletic trainers on the field, Patterson limped to the sideline, got his knee checked by Purdue's doctors and then got the knee iced up. About five hours later, Patterson lumbered onto the practice field without crutches, a brace or ice. He started practice on the stationary bike, though only used the arms to churn the wheels, not his feet at all, and he also worked with sports performance staff with a medicine ball. Toward the end of practice, Patterson watched the team periods from behind the offense.

Generally, though, Patterson didn't look too hampered.

"He’s had a little bit of knee issue with that meniscus before, so I think he just re-aggravated that. So hopefully in a day or two, he’ll be healed up," Hazell said.

Without Patterson, Purdue used Jalen Neal at left tackle, and Cameron Cermin got the bulk of the second-team reps. The short-term plan will be to rotate Neal and Cermin in Patterson's place, Hazell said. Neal, Cermin and Matt McCann also are battling for the starting right tackle spot.

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