A day after returning to practice for the first time since injuring his right foot in practice last week, Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger called the incident in which OT Max Starks stepped on his foot a “total accident,” and said although he’s not fully recovered, he’s improving.

“It was a pretty scary thing to have a 300-pound guy step on the back of your foot on your Achilles,” Roethlisberger said on Wednesday. “(Starks) went down, too, so you know he didn’t just graze it. We both went down. It felt like … everyone thought they heard a ‘pop,’ too. We didn’t know what happened. But, luckily it was a bruise. It’s coming along. It’s not a 100 percent, but it’s coming.”

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said on Tuesday that Roethlisberger would play and would not be limited in Saturday’s preseason game against the Bills.

Roethlisberger hasn’t missed a regular-season game since being held out of a meaningless final regular-season game in 2007, when the Steelers knew they would have a playoff game the following weekend. He was held out of last week’s preseason game against Washington. He said on Wednesday that he isn’t sure he could have played if the same injury had taken place in the regular season.

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