The mysterious nature of the foot injury that's kept Antonio Brown from training camp was partially revealed earlier this week when the Oakland Raiders superstar posted a photo on social media of skin peeling off the bottom of his feet. On Wednesday, multiple reports surfaced indicating the six-time Pro Bowler has frost bite after entering a cryogenic therapy chamber without the necessary foot protection.

The Raiders have stayed mum throughout Brown's absence from practice, leading some to question whether he was actually injured – baseless conjecture that he answered with those semi-graphic photos on Instagram. Oakland even managed to dodge providing meaningful insight into Brown's status during the debut of Hard Knocks, the acclaimed HBO documentary series that profiles a different team's training camp on an annual basis.

Owner Mike Davis toed his own company's line of deflection on Thursday, refusing to even acknowledge the reports saying Brown's feet were frozen in a cryogenic chamber.

“You’d have to ask someone else about that,” he said, per The Athletic's Vincent Bonsignore. “I’m an ‘M.D.,’ but I’m not a foot doctor. But I’ll say this, just watching him [when he did] practice, nobody works harder than this guy. And I’ve seen some of the best, Cliff [Branch] and everyone else. Antonio doesn’t have the straight-line speed that Cliff had, but he might have more football speed. And the way he can control it and everything.”

The Raiders are clearly doing their best by Brown to mitigate public criticism of his avoidable gaffe. But with every passing day he's away from the field, team officials will be asked to clarify the nature and cause of their best player's injury regardless.