Falcons Injury Report: Justin Blalock, Harry Douglas held out of practice

The Falcons have obviously taken a huge hit from injuries this week, and the news coming out of Flowery Branch today isn't great, either. Justin Blalock was held out of practice once again with a lower back injury, and Harland Gunn, recently promoted to the active roster from the practice squad, is expected to get the start at left guard against the Giants on Sunday. Smitty expressed confidence in Gunn when speaking to the media Wednesday, emphasizing that Gunn should be in game shape due to the number of practice reps the scout team gets each week. Gunn has been taking first team reps at left guard all week, so hopefully he'll be well-prepared to protect Matt Ryan on Sunday.

Harry Douglas was also held out of practice with the lingering foot injury that kept him out of last Sunday's game against the Vikings. His status is uncertain for Sunday, but having not practiced at all this week, it seems unlikely that Douglas will be on the field on Sunday. We'll see what tomorrow's practice holds.

Julio Jones and Devin Hester were both limited in Thursday's practice with ankle injuries. On defense, Kemal Ishmael is continuing to deal with the ankle injury he suffered last week against the Vikings, and Prince Shembo is nursing a knee injury. Both Ishmael and Shembo were limited in Thursday's practice. We'll see what tomorrow's practice and injury report hold for these players, but unless they're held out of tomorrow's practice, we can be cautiously optimistic about each of them being ready to play on Sunday.

In encouraging injury news, ESPN's Vaughn McClure reported some progress for Drew Davis, who has been on the PUP list since preseason.

No boot for Drew Davis anymore.

— vaughn mcclure (@vxmcclure23) October 2, 2014