The Chargers offense has missed receiver Keenan Allen for the past four games and a half. He went out in week one before halftime with a hamstring injury and hasn’t been back since.

Allen took a step forward on Wednesday when he returned to practice.

“That was the plan, to not put him out there until he was ready to ramp his way back up,” Chargers coach Brandon Staley said. “He’s been feeling better. At least he will be able to get out there, in his helmet, and go do some football stuff.”

Allen went through individual practice, which is route running and release drills to name a few. He went through them with no visible trouble. He stood and watched the team portion that the media watched.

The closest Allen has to being back was two weeks ago against the Houston Texans, but the Thursday before the game, he left practice with a trainer.

“In terms of the period that you guys were all at practice, he just felt that tighten up on him,” Staley said. “We didn’t want to take one of those big steps backward in terms of pushing it too fast.”

The Chargers receiver will dictate how this week goes for him and how much he can work through it. The positive for Allen and the team is that they have an extra day this week because they play on Monday Night Football, so he has time.

In other injury news, Chargers said that fellow wide receiver Mike Williams and right tackle Trey Pipkins would be missing practice. Williams has an illness, while Pipkins is dealing with an ankle injury.

Pipkins suffered the injury on Sunday when he was rolled up on, but luckily for him only has an MCL strain and was able to play the rest of the game.

Pipkins worked off to the side doing some work with the trainers on Wednesday.

“Trey [Pipkins III] will practice this week. He’s not going to practice today,” Staley said. “We’re going to try and take advantage of today and tomorrow to try and get him back out there, full-speed, for Friday’s practice.”