Injury report on the steelers from John Clayton.

[turningpoint]

The Steelers might have their starting quarterback returning for Sunday's game at Cincinnati, but the status of six other starters remains in limbo.

Coach Bill Cowher listed his top three receivers -- Hines Ward, Antwaan Randel El and Cedrick Wilson -- as questionable, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Wednesday. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is listed as probable, but expected to start.

"[Ward's] coming along fine," Cowher told the paper. "We'll monitor him this week and, hopefully, he'll be ready to go. It's always tough when you do not have one of your starting receivers in there, your starting quarterback in there. But that's what this business is all about. People have to step in and meet that challenge. He wasn't able to play, unfortunately. Hopefully, we'll be able to get both those guys [Ward and Roethlisberger] back this week."

Pro-Bowl guard Alan Faneca and defensive end Aaron Smith are also listed as questionable, while starting cornerback Deshea Townsend and dime cornerback Ricardo Colclough are listed as doubtful, leaving the Steelers' defense seriously depleted against the No. 2 offense and No. 7 passing offense in the Bengals.

"The sign of a good football team is being able to have people step in and play at a certain level when other people go down," Cowher told the paper. "We're no different than anyone else. You're going to have injuries in the NFL and, as I said before, the quality of any team will not be measured by their starting 22. It will be measured by the depth of their football team."

Rounding out the Steelers' injury report are linebacker Clark Haggans, who is out with a groin injury, backup quarterback Tommy Maddox, who is questionable, and linebackers James Harrison, Clint Kriewaldt and Joey Porter, who are all probable.

Good lord they gotta lot of guys banged up.

[BengalByTheBay]

Yeah, I didn't know it ran this deep. It's looking like if we can field TJ we may be able to really work that secondary. Unfortunately, we're probably going to go without Madieu, which will hurt. On the injury front, however, it definitely looks like we're in better shape for this one.