It remains unclear if Mike Hilton will be able to play for the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday. But the slot cornerback is not trending in the right direction.

A day after making it through a full practice for the first time since suffering a shoulder injury Oct. 18, Hilton was downgraded to a limited participant Thursday, according to the injury report.

But arguably the most eyebrow-raising aspect of Thursday’s report was an item at the bottom that under normal circumstances would barely even register notice. No. 3 running back Anthony McFarland missed practice for a reason listed as “illness.”

A player having an illness of any sort is alarming three days after the Steelers announced that a player — later revealed as tight end Vance McDonald — had tested positive for coronavirus. Four other players went on the reserve/covid-19 list Tuesday after deemed as “high-risk” contacts of McDonald.

McDonald missed practice last week on Friday; his positive test was not administered until Sunday.

Also Thursday, the top two nose tackles on the depth chart — Tyson Alualu and Isaiah Buggs — were limited participants in practice. Alualu suffered a knee ligament injury in the Nov. 1 game at Baltimore that kept him out of this past Sunday’s win at Dallas. Buggs has a nagging ankle injury that limited his practice last week but did not prevent him from playing against the Cowboys.

Fullback Derek Watt has been a full participant in both practices this week after he’d missed four of the previous five games because of a hamstring injury.

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