The hamstring continues to be a perplexing part of the human body for Houston Texans running backs.
With Arian Foster and Ben Tate already sidelined by hamstring issues, Steve Slaton became the latest member of Houston's backfield to deal with trouble in the area.
"Hamstring, tweaked a hamstring," Texans coach Gary Kubiaksaid of Slaton. "That seems to be the thing we've got going on right now and we're being hit at one spot, so that makes it tough. We'll see."
Slaton injured the hamstring during Thursday's practice. That means the Texans likely will be without the majority of their backfield when they open their preseason schedule Monday against the New York Jets.
Derrick Ward and Chris Ogbonnaya are the only healthy halfbacks on the depth chart listed on the team's official website.
The good news for the Texans is that the returns of Foster and Tate don't sound too far off.
"He's doing fine," Kubiak said of Foster, the NFL's rushing champion last season. "I would suspect we'll be smart with him probably through the weekend. I actually watched him run today. We're just being hit at that one position pretty hard. My understanding is that Tate's got a chance to be back on the field tomorrow, so we'll have to see where Steve is."