Posted by Ryan WilsonEagles wide receiver Jeremy Maclin missed the first five days of training camp, and although he's been at Lehigh University for more than a week, he has yet to practice. He's been battling an unspecified illness and Thursday, as his teammates prepared for their preseason game against the Ravens, he returned to his hometown of St. Louis to undergo further testing.
According to the Philadelphia Inquirer's Jeff McLaine and Jonathan Tamari, head coach Andy Reid, appearing on WIP 610 AM, said that Maclin's trip home had been planned. As for why Maclin would travel to Missouri to consult with doctors when the Eagles have their own, the Philadelphia Daily News' Les Bowen offers one theory.
"But Maclin, the Eagles' top receiver last season, is from the suburbs of St. Louis, and you'll recall that he was more or less raised by the family of a youth football coach, Dr. Jeff Parres," Bowen wrote Thursday. "Parres is a urologist, so I kinda doubt he's the one doing the tests right now, but obviously, Parres has deep connections in the medical community there, and no doubt, there are friends/associates he wants to assess this."
Bowen adds that "Maybe there's a different diagnosis or possible direction the case has taken, that Maclin and Parres would like to double-check with the guys back home. This is all speculation, because the team has never said what doctors think is wrong with Maclin or what the prognosis is."
Team sources told Bowen that the signing of ex-Giants wideout Steve Smith had nothing to do with Maclin's situation. As for what this means for Maclin's 2011 remains unclear. Bowen points out that "Right now, the significance of Maclin returning to St. Louis is this -- as long as he was at Lehigh, you figured he was trying to get ready to practice and might be out on the field soon."
Clearly, that's no longer the case, at least for the time being.
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