HOUSTON (CBS HOUSTON) – The Texans could be without star defensive player J.J. Watt due to a hand injury.

Watt didn’t practice Thursday and was wearing a cast on his left hand.

He missed two practices last week with a groin injury, which was also part of him being limited yesterday along with the reported hand issue being a reason he was limited.

This season Watt has a league-leading 13.5 sacks. He has yet to miss a game in his NFL career due to injury.

After practice, Bill O’Brien said about J.J.’s hand injury, “I don’t think it will affect him.” O’Brien thinks that Watt will play.

Watt also said he will play, and that his hand was broken at practice on Wednesday.

“People are going to try to make a big deal out of this, but I’ve played with worse than this before, even in this season. This, I’m not very worried about it. My elbow a couple of years back was way more painful.”

Watt said he isn’t sure how long the cast will stick, but multiple times praised the Texans training staff for their ability to have him ready to play on Sunday’s.

His weekly throwing routine with fans will continue despite the injury. Watt joked though he might drop a few more passes when catching the ball in warmups.

Defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel noted Watt will have to adjust to not being able to grab his opponents and that defensive lineman do use their hands quite a bit.

Watt isn’t worried about his injury being a target, in fact, he welcomes it.

“Let’em try it,” he said. “I mean what? The opposing players come after me every week, with every type of thing in the book you can think of. So feel free. Go ahead. Come at it. I’ll take advantage of whatever you try and do.”

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