Hines Ward Injury: Updates on Steelers Star's Week 9 Status and Fantasy Value

A lot of people smiled when they watched an unsuspecting Hines Ward get cracked in the helmet by Ray Lewis on Sunday Night Football.

For years Ward was the guy making the bone-crushing hits on unsuspecting players (just ask Bengals linebacker Keith Rivers), and now Lewis was able to get some revenge.

Twitter has some fun with the dazed Ward:

Ward never returned to the game after the first half hit in the Steelers' 23-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens. The team called the injury a stinger.

That raised more than a few eyebrows around the league. A blow to the head like that has to be a concussion right? Yahoo! Sports Andrew Bucholtz thinks so:

If it is a concussion, Ward will miss at least a week, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. At Monday’s press conference, head coach Mike Tomlin told reporters that the injury was “minor” and that he will likely be back on the field for this week’s huge game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Right now he’s listed as “questionable.”

Fantasy Impact

Hopefully you aren’t relying too heavily on Ward to help your fantasy team.

Ward has only racked up 258 yards and two TDs this season as he takes a backseat to Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown.

He is nothing more than a possession receiver for Ben Roethlisberger and isn’t worth playing next week against the No. 4 ranked Bengals defense.

Considering he missed Week 8 with an ankle injury and has a bye in Week 11…I would strongly consider cutting the aging Ward.