Steelers Timmons; "Feeling refreshed but ankle still day to day"

Defensive end Travis Kirschke did not practice again on Friday, and his status in Denver, like safety Ryan Clark is up in the air.

Clark is expected to be deactivated for the game due to possible complications from a blood disorder due to the Sickle Cell trait.

Inside linebacker Lawrence Timmons (ankle sprain) did return to practice but was limited. He is undergoing injection treatments according to his blog page for the injury.

"I got a shot in my ankle today. They took 10 CCs of my blood, and they have a machine that takes the plasma out," Timmons said. " Then they injected the plasma into my ankle. That helps speed up the process of healing. It helped me to a speedy recovery the last time I hurt my ankle."

As for his status on Monday night, he said it is a day-by-day thing at this juncture.

"I had to wear a boot for a week but I got that taken off and now I can get around on my own," he said. " But I still can’t run on it. It’s day-to-day right now whether I will play on Monday. Last time I hurt my ankle it was touch and go on Wednesday, but by that Sunday I was ready to play. So I have hope."

Timmons did say the bye week has helped the healing process.

"I definitely feel refreshed," Timmons said. " Anytime you can get a week off, even though I do love football, it’s always great to get some time away. It’s really gotten better and I’ve been working out on the Nordic track, walking in water, rotating the ankle to make it stronger, icing it, doing exercises to help loosen it up."

If Timmons can't go expect to see more of Keyaron Fox, who was the hero of the Vikings game with his interception return for a touchdown, while Nick Eason along with Ziggy Hood will see reps at the defensive end slot for Kirschke.

QUOTABLE

"When you prepare for a team like this, it is like playing a division team, like the Ravens. It’s always defense challenging defense. It’s an important goal in every game for us: As a defense, we always want to outplay the other defense." -- Steelers safety Troy Polamalu on the Broncos.

"The offense obviously is the same and we do many things to try to attack defenses each week. We try to do things that we feel are best against the team that we are playing. I think that is really the biggest thing he is referring to. We use very similar plays, obviously, and try to put our players in position to be successful." -- Denver coach Josh McDaniels on the similarities to New England where he was a coordinator last year.