ALLEN PARK -- T.J. Lang is frustrated.

He was pretty good when he was out there in his first season back home in Detroit. Heck, he made the Pro Bowl. But he had to fight through a variety of injuries to do it, from his back to his foot to his brain. It was a tough go for the veteran guard, and he was excited to turn the page in 2018, when he didn't have to undergo offseason surgery for the first time in three years.

Except here he is now, just 19 days until the season opener and missing more practice time because of a new injury. He hasn't been on the field in more than a week. So, yeah, he's frustrated.

"I think any time plans kind of change, there's obviously a little bit of frustration," Lang said as he battled through illness -- oh yeah, he's sick too -- to speak with reporters for a few minutes at his locker on Tuesday afternoon. "Luckily for me, I'm in a spot where there aren't any drastic changes. I think the point where we are in the preseason and training camp, it's more of a precautionary thing. I think if it were regular season right now, I'd be out there doing everything. We'll kind of leave it at that."

Lang wasn't in a mood to make any kind of guarantees, but it sounds like he hopes to be out there Sept. 10 for the opener on Monday Night Football against the New York Jets. And the Lions need him too.

Injuries derailed Detroit's efforts to remake the offensive line last year. Everybody except Graham Glasgow missed multiple starts. Detroit was forced into 10 starting lineup combinations, some of which even featured Greg Robinson -- yeah, things didn't go great -- and the top line was on the field for just 95 plays.

The result: Matthew Stafford was sacked the second-most times in the league -- in fact, he's set career highs for sacks each of the last two years -- and the running game was the worst in the league by almost any measure.

GM Bob Quinn tried to offer reinforcements this year, replacing Travis Swanson with first-round pick Frank Ragnow and hiring Jeff Davidson to help reimagine the blocking concepts. Throw in another first-round pick in Taylor Decker, plus third-round pick Glasgow and a couple high-priced free agents in Lang and Rick Wagner, and hopes were high that Detroit's offensive line would finally find its groove in 2018.

And that's why Lang's health is being watched so closely. Because the depth behind him isn't great, with Joe Dahl and Kenny Wiggins both struggling in his place.

"I know there's been a lot of speculation about me not being out there, but I've been doing a lot of work with certain people the last couple weeks," he said. "I guess all I can really say is there's nothing serious going on, I'm being cautious with the training staff -- trainers, doctors -- my plan this year right now is to take it day by day, get healthy and do my best to get out there for Week 1 which I think is definitely the goal right now,.

Lang didn't play against the Raiders or Giants in the first two weeks of the preseason, and he's not expected to play Friday night in the dress rehearsal against Tampa Bay either. And with many starters expected to sit in the preseason finale, it seems Detroit won't get a single look at its offensive line intact before the start of the regular season.

But Lang, 30, said he's played enough football that missing the preseason shouldn't hurt his chemistry with Glasgow and Wagner.

"I've played a lot of football with Rick and Graham, so I think we do our best to kind of simulate what we do on the field in the meetings and walkthroughs, things like that. We do a good job of communicating, even when I'm not out there."