The Chicago Bears were once again without running back Kyle Monangai for the Week 7 contest against the New England Patriots on Thursday night.

Monangai has now missed three games in a row due to a pair of injuries he came down with in the Week 4 win over the New York Jets, which has left the Bears short-handed at running back and forced them to deploy Roschon Johnson behind D'Andre Swift.

The hope is Monangai will finally make it back in Week 8, but we can't say that for sure as of this writing.

Here's the details of the injuries Monangai is dealing and why there's reason for optimism about him playing next Monday.

Kyle Monangai injury update

Monangai is listed with two injuries on the team's injury report, a thumb issue and a toe injury.

While we don't have specifics on Monangai's thumb injury, we do know he has turf toe, which is typically a multi-week injury, as we have seen with the second-year running back missing three games.

The last head coach Ben Johnson discussed Monangai's injury was on Oct. 16, when he said the Bears running back was "trending in the right direction," so he's progressing.

That said, his status for Week 8 is still up in the air.

When is Kyle Monangai coming back?

Again, we don't know if Monangai will be ready to go for the game versus the Seattle Seahawks next Sunday, but there is optimism he'll be ready to roll.

For starters, the Bears did not place Monangai on injured reserve, which is a hint they don't think he'll miss four or more games. He has missed three thus far.

Of course, it's always possible Monangai suffered a setback or his injury proved to be worse than initially expected, so we can't totally rule out Monangai sitting another game or more. That said, there hasn't been any reporting that either of those things actually happened.

Another reason for optimism is the fact that Monangai will have four extra days to get right with the Bears having a mini bye in between Week 7 and Week 8.

We might have to sit tight for the next injury update on Monangai, which may not come until Thursday of next week, when the Bears release their first injury report for the Monday night contest in Week 8.

Any semblance of participation would be huge news for Monangai, who has yet to practice since getting hurt.