Kevin Johnson hospitalized with lacerated liver

Cleveland Browns cornerback Kevin Johnson was hospitalized on Wednesday afternoon after suffering a lacerated liver during practice.

According to the brief statement issued by the Browns:

Browns CB Kevin Johnson was admitted to University Hospitals yesterday afternoon after sustaining an abdominal injury when another player landed on him during yesterday’s practice. Test results revealed that he sustained a laceration to his liver. Kevin is resting comfortably and is expected to remain in the hospital for at least another 24 hours for observation.

The team did not release any specifics on how bad Johnson’s injury is, so it is not clear how long he might be out.

The Browns signed Johnson as a free agent in April after he spent the 2019 season with the Buffalo Bills, where he made one start while playing all 16 games.

A first-round draft selection by the Houston Texans in 2015, Johnson played in 35 games during four seasons with the Texans, but only started eight games over his final three seasons with the team as injuries took a toll. Johnson played just six games in 2016 because of a foot injury, 12 games in 2017 because of a knee injury and just one game in 2018 because of a concussion.

He was considered as one of the top candidates to claim the slot corner position this year with the Browns.

It was just on Monday that Johnson talked about the opportunity to put his injury history in the past, according to clevelandbrowns.com:

“I never had been hurt in my career at that point. My rookie year, I break my foot. My second year, I re-break the same foot. The next year, MCL. The next year, concussions. I had to go on IR twice. It was hard for me because I have high expectations for myself. It was hard to adjust to what was going on.

“Through it all, I feel like it made me mentally stronger. It showed me that I am still hungry, and I still believe in myself and what I want to be as a player. It definitely shaped me. I feel like I have a chip on my shoulder. That is very obvious there is a chip on my shoulder and that I just want to be the player that I think I should be. It motivates me every day to continue chasing the dream that I had when I was a little kid.”

Johnson is the latest player to go down with an injury in what has been a bit of a rough opening week of training camp for the Browns.

The team lost running back Nick Chubb to a concussion on Tuesday and linebacker Mack Wilson to a knee injury on Wednesday. In addition, center JC Tretter has been sideline after undergoing a procedure on his knee the day before training camp opened.