Chiefs announce De’Anthony Thomas will miss Sunday’s game

Chiefs receiver De’Anthony Thomas won’t be making his return to the field this weekend, after all.

The Chiefs announced Saturday that Thomas, who has missed the Chiefs’ previous four games because of a concussion, will sit out the home game Sunday against Cleveland for non-football related reasons.

Thomas had been a full participant in practice all week and was listed as probable on Friday’s injury report, a classification the league describes as a “virtual certainty” to play.

The Chiefs’ “non-football related” declaration, however, indicates that Thomas’ latest setback was not due to any lingering effects from the concussion, a notion confirmed by his agent, Jerome Stanley.

Instead, Stanley told The Star, Thomas and the Chiefs collectively decided that it was simply wiser to give him a full week to return to the field before seeing any game action, and that the timing of Thomas’ clearance from the league’s concussion protocol did not allow that for Sunday’s game.

Thomas is expected to be ready to go starting on Monday, Stanley added.

Before the concussion he suffered against the Chargers on Nov. 22, Thomas served as the Chiefs’ lead kick and punt returner and also carved out a specialty role on offense.

In his absence, Knile Davis has reassumed the starting kick-return duties, while Frankie Hammond has handled the punt-return duties. Meanwhile, receiver Albert Wilson has been featured on the jet sweeps Thomas typically runs.

During his absence, the Chiefs have gone 4-0 and enter Sunday’s game with a 9-5 record.

This story was originally published December 26, 2015 at 4:27 PM.