{"id":402789,"date":"2026-01-09T21:36:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:36:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402789\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T21:36:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T21:36:07","slug":"chargers-rb-omarion-hampton-ankle-to-play-vs-patriots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/402789\/","title":{"rendered":"Chargers RB Omarion Hampton (ankle) to play vs. Patriots"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Los Angeles Chargers<\/a> running back Omarion Hampton<\/a>, who missed the Chargers’ Week 18 game against the Denver Broncos<\/a> with a right ankle injury, said he plans to play in Sunday’s playoff game against the New England Patriots<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Chargers officially listed Hampton as questionable for Sunday. He participated in practice in a limited capacity Friday, marking his first on-field work since Week 17.<\/p>\n

“I’m super excited,” Hampton said of potentially playing in his first playoff game.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/p>\n

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Hampton, the Chargers’ first-round rookie, has seen his season hindered by injuries. He was placed on injured reserve after the Chargers’ Week 5 loss to the Washington Commanders<\/a> with a fracture in his left ankle. He returned in Week 14 against the Eagles, only to sustain an injury to his other ankle injury in Week 17 against the Houston Texans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“It’s definitely been different, but it’s something I’ve just got to keep getting treatment on and bounce back from,” Hampton said of the injuries.<\/p>\n

Hampton said he wasn’t sure about the severity of his injury, but it occurred early in the fourth quarter against Houston when he was tackled by linebacker Henry To’oTo’o<\/a>. Despite the injury, Hampton stayed in the game, finishing with 29 rushing yards, a touchdown, and 31 receiving yards.<\/p>\n

“I definitely didn’t want to give up on my team,” Hampton said. “I just wanted to help my team out as much as I could, so I kept my head down and kept playing.”<\/p>\n

Hampton got off to a slow start early in the season but quickly became one of the Chargers’ most important offensive pieces after veteran running back Najee Harris<\/a> suffered a season-ending Achilles rupture in the first half of the Chargers’ Week 3 game against the Denver Broncos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With Harris sidelined, Los Angeles leaned heavily on Hampton, who broke out with a team-high 129 yards from scrimmage and his first NFL touchdown in a 23-20 win.<\/p>\n

Since returning in Week 14, Hampton has picked up where he left off. His best performance came against the Dallas Cowboys<\/a>, when he rushed 16 times for 85 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n

Regardless of Hampton’s availability, the Chargers are expected to split the workload between him and Kimani Vidal<\/a>, a sixth-round pick from last season who has starred while Hampton has been sidelined. Vidal leads Los Angeles in rushing yards with 643.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Los Angeles Chargers running back Omarion Hampton, who missed the Chargers’ Week 18 game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":402790,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-402789","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=402789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/402789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/402790"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=402789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=402789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=402789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}