MONTREAL (AP) — Johnny Manziel is out of the Canadian Football League's concussion protocol and is expected to back up Antonio Pipkin in the Montreal Alouettes' game Friday night at Ottawa.
Manziel was cleared to come off concussion protocol Tuesday. The Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback has missed two games after taking a hard hit at the goal line in his second game with Montreal following a trade with Hamilton.
"I'm easing my way back in, slowly but surely," Manziel said Wednesday. "I won't go into a ton of detail about it, but I started to feel more normal toward the beginning of last week, and once you feel normal is when you really start the protocol stuff.
"They told me early last week it was looking unlikely I would be able to play. I know I wanted to. I've never missed two weeks in the past when I've had a concussion. So this has been a longer, slower process for me than I'm accustomed to and I think it's definitely been frustrating. I want to play and I'm itching and eager to get back but we'll see how things play out."
Pipkin helped Montreal (2-8) end a six game losing streak last week with a victory over Toronto.
