Tomlin: Steelers were aware of Bell's late-season groin injury

The groin issue Le'Veon Bell dealt with toward the end of the season, and eventually aggravated in Sunday's AFC title game, wasn't as surprising to the Pittsburgh Steelers as it was to the rest of the football world.

Head coach Mike Tomlin explained Tuesday that the Steelers were well aware of the injury down the stretch.

“He was doing a great job of managing it,” Tomlin said, according to the team's official website. “It didn’t cause him to miss any practice time, let alone game time. It was something to manage. When you look at the journey that is the season, I think just about every guy down there is dealing with and managing something in an effort to stay on the grass.

"I was aware of it. It wasn't significant to the point where it affected planning or the anticipation of planning in any way. It's unfortunate that it became an issue in game."

Bell's groin injury wasn't disclosed on the injury report, so it remains to be seen whether the Steelers will be subject to any sort of league discipline heading into the offseason.

After Pete Carroll admitted that Richard Sherman played through a significant MCL injury over the second half of the year, reports surfaced indicating that the Seattle Seahawks could be stripped of a second-round pick for violating the NFL's injury report policy.

Bell's absence for the majority of Sunday's game proved to be incredibly costly for a typically explosive Pittsburgh offense, as the New England Patriots advanced to Super Bowl LI with a convincing 36-17 victory.