Omar Bolden’s return from a hamstring injury was promising but short-lived.

The Broncos’ safety ran back a punt 42 yards in the first quarter of Denver’s divisional playoff victory over the Steelers on Sunday. But about seven minutes later, on a Broncos punt, Bolden went down with a right knee injury and had to be helped off the field.

Bolden had a magnetic resonance imaging scan Monday morning that revealed a Grade 2 posterior cruciate ligament sprain that will not require surgery, but will keep him out for the rest of the postseason.

“He’s probably heading to (injured reserve) here in the next couple days,” Broncos coach Gary Kubiak said Monday. “We’ll have to replace him. Don’t quite know which direction we’ll go yet, so we’ll sit down and deal with that here over the next couple days. We’ll miss him.”

Bolden had missed the previous four games because of a right hamstring injury he sustained Dec. 6, at San Diego.

“I caught the short end of the stick this season,” he said.

The loss of Bolden adds to the list of injuries to the Broncos’ already banged-up secondary. Fellow safety and special teams player David Bruton was placed on season-ending injured reserve with a leg injury he suffered Dec. 20, in the Broncos’ first meeting with the Steelers.

And cornerback Chris Harris has played the past two games with a left shoulder injury that hindered his play Sunday.

“It’s just football,” Harris said after the victory. “I have to do the best I can to be me out there. It’s very hard.”

Playing with only one fully functioning arm Sunday, players Harris was covering were targeted six times. He gave up 70 yards on four receptions and missed a tackle, according to Pro Football Focus.

“He came out fine. I don’t think it got any worse,” Kubiak said of Harris’ injury. “It’s just been bothering him. He went out there and gutted it up and played with one arm in a lot of ways, battled for our team. Hopefully there is some improvement there this week, just physically. I just saw him in the training room (Monday) morning. His attitude is great, just beat up. It’s that time of year. Appreciate him working through it.”

With Harris in obvious discomfort, second-year cornerback Bradley Roby played 52 (83 percent) of the Broncos’ defensive snaps. His forced a fumble with 10 minutes remaining in the fourth quarter that set up C.J. Anderson’s game-winning touchdown run.

Kubiak said Harris will be healthy enough to suit up Sunday, when the Broncos host the Patriots in the AFC championship game, but his playing time might also depend on the Broncos’ defensive game plan.

“Chris is a little banged up right now, so we’ve got to make sure we cover ourselves from that standpoint, especially for this week,” said Kubiak, who met with Broncos executive vice president and general John Elway on Monday about their plan to compensate for the injuries. “At the same time, too, you’d like to reward some of our young guys that have been working really hard for you all year long. We’ll take a look at both and see what’s best.”

Nicki Jhabvala: njhabvala@denverpost.com or @NickiJhabvala