Patriots coach explains why Christian Gonzalez was re-added to the injury report

Last week, cornerback Christian Gonzalez (hamstring) was not listed on the team's injury report for the first time this season. However, Gonzalez was re-added to the report on Thursday, as a limited participant. Gonzalez was not listed at all on Wednesday.

That didn't come as much of a surprise given the portion of practice open to the media. After being on the field for the opening stretching period he walked off the main practice area, and didn't return for the positional drills that the media were able to watch (about 15 minutes of what is a two-hour practice). According to Patriots cornerbacks coach Justin Hamilton, who spoke after practice, this was part of the plan and Gonzalez re-joined the team later on.

"He's on a plan with [head coach Mike Vrabel] and Frank [Piraino, director of sports performance] with Jim [Whalen, vice president of sports medicine and performance and head athletic trainer] in the training room, and it’s kind of a warm-up, the early portion of practice, just to do more," Hamilton explained. "Because some of the stuff is special teams or things where it’s like jog-through walk-through, so it’s for him to be able to get to the pace he can go at to be able to go out there when we are in the speed periods of practice."

Gonzalez, 23, suffered the hamstring injury in the first week of training camp and it ended up holding him out for the first three games of the regular season. He returned in Week 4 and has played fully in the two games since. He was last listed on the injury report during Week 4 leading up to his return. His status will now be something to watch this week heading into the Patriots' matchup with the New Orleans Saints.

In addition to adding Gonzalez, the Patriots made a few other changes from Wednesday. Linebacker Anfernee Jennings (ankle) did not participate after being limited on Wednesday. He joined safety Jaylinn Hawkins (hamstring) and defensive lineman Keion White (elbow) who were out for the second day in a row. Running back Antonio Gibson (knee) also remains listed as a DNP after tearing his ACL last week. The team has yet to move him to IR.

Also downgraded was linebacker Marte Mapu (neck/hamstring), from a full to limited participant. This comes as a hamstring injury is added to the report - he was listed with just a neck injury on Wednesday.

As for the Saints, they got good news on their offensive line. Both Trevor Penning (ankle) and Cesar Ruiz (ankle) went from being limited to full participants. Meanwhile, running back Alvin Kamara (ankle) and tight end Juwan Johnson (ankle) remain limited.