Raiders’ Darren McFadden to practice on Wednesday

When healthy, Oakland Raiders’ running back Darren McFadden is one of the better running backs in the NFL.

The problem is, he’s had a hard time staying healthy during his career. In six seasons in the NFL, all with the Raiders, McFadden has only played in 65 out of 96 possible regular season games. This season, the injury storyline has continued to follow him. Raider fans haven’t seen McFadden since Week 13 against Dallas, and he only rushed five times in that game.

With all that in mind, Paul Gutierrez of ESPN.com is reporting that McFadden is healthy enough to at least get back to practice for Oakland.

"Oft-injured running back Darren McFadden, who has missed five of the Raiders’ past six games, is expected to practice Wednesday, coach Dennis Allen said in his weekly news conference on Monday."

And McFadden’s take on the situation? Here’s what he said a few weeks ago, per Gutierrez:

"“I’ve dealt with so much criticism for so long I’ve always just, you just have to turn your face to it,” he said the week of the Dallas game. “You can’t pay attention to it. You have to stay positive and focus on the task at hand.”"

NFL players are warriors and they put their bodies through hell each and every single week, so I’m not one to really get down on a player for dealing with injuries.

That said, the NFL is also a results oriented business, and the unfortunate reality is that if you can’t keep yourself on the field, you will face criticism.

Hopefully McFadden will be able to avoid the injury bug from here on out. History says he won’t, though.