Injury-plagued Patriots missing nine players at Tuesday’s practice

The New England Patriots returned to practice on Tuesday, following their disappointing loss to the Buffalo Bills, and there were more than just a few missing faces on the field.

A combination of injuries and sickness have decimated the team in the final stretch of the regular season.

The good news is they’ve had extra rest time with their upcoming Monday Night Football game against the Arizona Cardinals coming after their second consecutive Thursday Night Football appearance. So they’ve had all weekend to sit back, relax and begin implementing the necessary changes to hopefully bounce back from consecutive losses to the Bills and Minnesota Vikings.

Of course, a big indicator of that will be their ability to stay healthy, which has been increasingly hard for them to do lately. They were missing nine players at practice on Tuesday, including multiple standout players on both sides of the ball.

There’s still plenty of time for the Patriots to get right ahead of their showdown with the Cardinals.

Even with their 6-6 record, they are still very much in the AFC playoff hunt as the eighth seed behind a New York Jets team they’ve already beaten twice and own a tiebreaker against.

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Story originally appeared on Patriots Wire