Chargers' Melvin Gordon day-to-day with hip strain, knee sprain

SAN DIEGO -- Chargers running back Melvin Gordon is day-to-day with what an MRI revealed Monday is a hip strain and left knee sprain. That is good news with Gordon having had microfracture surgery on the same knee in January.

"That was a huge relief," said Chargers coach Mike McCoy, who did not rule out Gordon's return for the last three games of the season, including Sunday against theOakland Raiders. "You see the way it was, and I made too many trips out to the field yesterday and really all year long. You don't want to see anybody get carted off."

McCoy also told reporters Monday that rookie defensive end Joey Bosa did not suffer a concussion but has a neck strain and should be healthy enough to play this week.

Gordon suffered the injuries midway through the first quarter of San Diego's 28-16 loss to the Carolina Pantherson Sunday. While trying to recover a Philip Rivers fumble, Gordon was hit in the back by Carolina linebacker Thomas Davis.

Gordon was carted off the field an did not return. He finished 3 yards short of reaching his first career 1,000-yard season. McCoy said Gordon's pursuit of the milestone won't play a role in the team's decision to put him on the field late in the year.

"We're not going to throw him out there so he can get a couple yards so he can say he got a thousand yards," McCoy said. "And he doesn't want that, either. I'm going to make sure that he's ready to go and be Melvin when he gets back on the field. That's the most important thing."

Bosa, a 2016 first-round selection by the Chargers, injured his neck while bringing down Carolina quarterback Cam Newton for a sack in the second quarter. He remained on the field for few minutes while trainers looked at him, but he eventually got up and walked off on his own.

Bosa leads the Chargers in sacks with 6.5 in nine games played.

The Chargers also announced defensive lineman Tenny Palepoi has been suspended without pay for four games for violating the NFL's policy on performance-enhancing substances. The suspension begins immediately.

In his third season out of Utah, the 25-year-old Palepoi has 13 tackles in 13 games.