The Los Angeles Chargers can’t win when it comes to the injury bug. 

Talk about an evergreen statement, right? But it has certainly applied in the nastiest of ways over the last month or so.

The Chargers lost shiny new starting center Tyler Biadasz to a season-ending injury. And upon his return from a season-ending injury of his own, elite offensive tackle Rashawn Slater suffered a setback early in camp that derailed reps for the entire unit. Now, a starting linebacker is on injured reserve, too. 

New developments aren’t helping things either. And this time, they hit the skill positions for offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel via new running back Keaton Mitchell. 

Keaton Mitchell injury outlook

The Chargers only kept three running backs on their initial 53-man roster with the knowledge that free-agent signee Keaton Mitchell has a bit of an injury history. 

Now, after Thursday’s miss, Mitchell has missed six straight practices. 

It’s starting to come up in media sessions, too. 

Chargers general manager Joe Hortiz, though, shut down things by comparing it to the IR stint for Denzel Perryman. 

“He’s working through something, but nothing [major] Let's put it this way: we could put him down on IR today like we did with Denzel [Perryman] and we did not do that,” Hortiz told reporters. “So if that kind of answers your question.”

Maybe it does answer the question. But there’s also the possibility that Mitchell misses the first four games of the season anyway. Going to injured reserve would require missing four before being permitted to activate him. It's not like the Chargers couldn't do a little roster shuffling if he needed to miss a month.

Who knows? All we do know is that the Chargers might be playing it really safe, given Mitchell’s injury history. They surely have a big plan for him in Justin Herbert’s offense, given the things he can do and how he projects into a McDaniel-directed offense. 

Even so, the Chargers only have Omarion Hampton and Kimani Vidal on the roster at the spot otherwise. Vidal proved himself last year when the team needed him, but it’s fair to expect the Chargers call up from the practice squad with Amar Johnson or Gregory Desrosiers for extra help if Mitchell indeed needs to miss time. 

At this point, Mitchell joins the list of must-watch Chargers on the first injury report of the season next week.

Sign Up For the Chargers Daily Digest - OnSI’s Free Los Angeles Chargers Newsletter