INDIANAPOLIS – Colts receiver T.Y. Hilton will not play in Sunday’s game at Pittsburgh due to a calf injury, coach Frank Reich said Friday.
The non-contact injury, according to Reich, occurred during practice Wednesday. Hilton did not practice Thursday or Friday.
“I’ll tell you this, with the information that we have, generally speaking, generally speaking it’s a three- to four-week injury,” Reich said. “Everybody responds differently. We’ll see how it goes from there.”
Hilton missed the Colts’ Week 4 game against the Oakland Raiders because of a quad injury. He leads the Colts in receptions (32), targets (46), yards (360), touchdowns (5) and first-down receptions (17) this season.
The Colts are 0-5 without Hilton since he entered the NFL in 2012.
“In order to win games we have to keep going,” Colts receiver Zach Pascal said. “We’re going to be as good as the next man.”
The Colts (5-2) will try to stay in first place in the AFC South without having Hilton for potentially the next few weeks.
Their next three opponents — Pittsburgh, Miami and Jacksonville — are a combined 7-15.
Indianapolis will lean on Pascal, tight ends Eric Ebron and Jack Doyle, and the running game to try to get by. The Colts are currently 11th in the NFL in rushing at 128.4 yards a game.
“Not only confident, I’m excited,” Reich said about having other players step up. “Not for T.Y., we’re obviously losing a great player, but I’m really excited for our guys…To take a spot from T.Y. is kind of by committee. We’ll spread it around. I’m genuinely excited and we know T.Y. is T.Y. He’ll heal as fast as anybody can possibly heal and then we’ll get him ready to go.”