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Chicago Bears' Matt Nagy on Roquan Smith: 'It's a personal matter'

By Connor Grott
Chicago Bears inside linebacker Roquan Smith (58) was a surprise inactive for the Bears' game against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. File Photo by Kamil Krzaczynski/UPI
Chicago Bears inside linebacker Roquan Smith (58) was a surprise inactive for the Bears' game against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday. File Photo by Kamil Krzaczynski/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Chicago Bears linebacker Roquan Smith's status for Sunday's game against the Oakland Raiders in London is uncertain due to an ongoing personal issue.

League sources told ESPN and the Chicago Sun-Times that Smith spent Tuesday working out at Halas Hall, but he will be out indefinitely while the team gives him time to deal with a personal matter. According to ESPN, Smith hadn't been acting like himself around the team facilities for the last week or so.

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Bears head coach Matt Nagy told reporters Monday that Smith's situation was a "personal issue" but didn't go into greater detail about what he's dealing with.

"It's completely a personal issue," Nagy said. "I'm not going to answer any more about it. That's where it's at right now. I understand where you all are coming from, but out of respect to this right now, I just want to leave it at that."

Smith, who wasn't listed on the team's official injury report last week, was a surprise inactive for Chicago's matchup against the Vikings on Sunday. He was downgraded to doubtful about 20 minutes before the list of inactives came out.

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"Again, he's completely a personal issue," Nagy said Monday. "For us, it's something that we're going to leave it at that right now."

Smith, the No. 8 overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft, recorded a team-high 121 total tackles in 16 regular-season games (15 starts) for the Bears last season. He was credited with six combined tackles in the Bears' win over the Washington Redskins in Week 3.

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