Raiders, Bengals Wild Card Playoff final injury report: DT Johnathan Hankins expected to play

DT Johnathan Hankins returned to practice for Raiders and is expected to play vs Bengals

After missing the first two practices this week with back and knee injuries, Raiders got back Johnathan Hankins Thursday for their final practice in preparation for Saturday’s Wild Card playoff game in Cincinnati.

Hankins has been dealing with a back issue for a few weeks now. It cost him the team’s Week 17 game in Indianapolis, but he returned for the season finale against the Chargers. And Interim Head Coach Rich Bisaccia is expecting Hankins to be ready to go for Saturday as well.

“Johnathan Hankins was limited today but he did get a few reps in every one of our defensive sets,” said Bisaccia. “We’ll see how he comes back tomorrow from the soreness, but with a full anticipation of hopefully he’ll be ready to go.”

With the loss of Darius Philon this week, the Raiders were already thin at the nose tackle, making Hankins’ status all the more important. The only other nose tackles are on the practice squad.