Nyles Morgan, Habakkuk Baldonado to return for Ottawa Redblacks

Photo: Gord Weber/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

The Ottawa Redblacks will have linebacker Nyles Morgan and defensive end Habakkuk Baldonado back in the lineup when they visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Thursday.

“Nyles is going to be playing with a little club (on his hand), playing through that injury, but he’s fully cleared by the doctors to go play,” head coach and general manager Ryan Dinwiddie told the media on Wednesday.

“Haba (sic) we almost took off (the six-game injured list) last week. He just wasn’t quite there yet, so we thought it was safe to wait one more week.”

Morgan suffered a broken hand against the Edmonton Elks last month. At the time, he ranked first league-wide in defensive tackles with 38. The 29-year-old ended up missing only three regular-season games due to the injury.

“(Morgan) and (C.J.) Reavis are our defensive leaders, more of the vocal guys — they lead by example as well,” said Dinwiddie. “He was disappointed when we had to put him on the six. He’s ready to go now. He’s fired up.”

The six-foot, 230-pound defender has tallied 415 defensive tackles, nine special teams tackles, eight sacks, four forced fumbles, and one interception over 67 career regular-season CFL games as a member of the Elks and Redblacks.

Baldonado recorded five defensive tackles and one sack over five starts to begin the year but was placed on the six-game injured list in mid-July.

The 26-year-old helped the Saskatchewan Roughriders win the Grey Cup last year. He has made 36 defensive tackles, four special teams tackles, seven sacks, and one forced fumble over 41 career regular-season CFL games.

The native of Rome, Italy was fined three times following Ottawa’s loss to Edmonton last month, including one for displaying the middle finger to the crowd at Commonwealth Stadium.

The return of Morgan and Baldonado should help make up for the loss of Bryce Carter and Michael Wakefield, both of whom were placed on the six-game injured list earlier this week. The club also released veteran defensive backs Demerio Houston and Amari Henderson.

The Ottawa Redblacks (0-8) will visit the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (4-4) at Princess Auto Stadium on Friday, August 14 with kickoff scheduled for 8:30 p.m. EDT. The Redblacks suffered a 42-20 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders last week, while the Blue Bombers were on bye.

The weather forecast in Winnipeg calls for 23 degrees with a mix of sun and cloud. The game will be broadcast on TSN and RDS2 in Canada and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune-in on TSN 1200 in Ottawa or 680 CJOB in Winnipeg.