KANSAS CITY, Missouri – The Chiefs placed Clyde Edwards-Helaire on the non-football list on Monday, which will require the running back to miss at least the first four games of the regular season.

The decision comes after a series of intermittent absences for the 25-year-old throughout the preseason, including Sunday’s practice, as the club prepares to host Baltimore in Thursday night’s season opener. Last month, Edwards-Helaire revealed he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and cyclic vomiting syndrome.

Under the rules for non-football illnesses in the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, clubs are not required to pay a player’s weekly salary while he is on the roster. The Chiefs plan to keep Edwards-Helaire, who is set to make $1.125 million this season, on the payroll and continue to support him through his treatment, a source told Chiefs Digest. The club also has not ruled out Edwards-Helaire returning to the field later this season.

The team’s focus is on getting Edwards-Helaire in a “good position” to consider returning to the field, the source said.

When he announced his diagnosis last month, Edwards-Helaire said most of his physical and mental health problems stem from his PTSD, which is related to a self-defense incident in December 2018 when he was a student at LSU. An 18-year-old man who allegedly tried to rob Edwards-Helaire and a teammate at gunpoint was fatally shot. A Louisiana prosecutor ruled the football player responded with justified violence.

The disease often led to dehydration and even hospitalization in Edwards-Helaire.

“It’s something neurological that they just help me with and walk me through, and I mean, I’m — sometimes I get hospitalized,” Edwards-Helaire said Aug. 1. “I can’t stop throwing up, and it’s just — I can’t — no — nothing that can really stop it, and the only person that kind of steered me in the right direction was (assistant athletic trainer) Julie Frymyer in the beginning.”

Teammates, coaches and team staff were aware of Edwards-Helaire’s diagnosis before his public announcement last month. In addition to Frymer and other members of the organization, he thanked teammates like Travis Kelce and former Chiefs receiver Kadarius Toney for helping him through difficult days.

“They know in advance, like, ‘Okay, Clyde might not laugh — he’s not laughing, he’s not giggling, he’s not being himself,'” Edwards-Helaire said last month. “We just have to make sure that we see him as a person, not just the energizer, the laugher, the guy that kind of keeps the locker room going.’ I think that’s a big part of what I bring, and then when I get called upon, I go out there and perform, and they know that’s not a question. So, I think that’s what it is.”

With Edwards-Helaire placed on the non-football illness list, the Chiefs have three running backs on the active roster: Isiah Pacheco, Carson Steele and newly signed free agent Samaje Perine. The club also has two running backs on the practice squad: Keaontay Ingram and Emani Bailey, who spent training camp with the team.