SEATTLE — The University of Washington football team finally took its first bye over the weekend.

There is a slight chance that the Huskies’ star player might need another one.

Junior quarterback Jake Locker, who has been nursing a deep thigh bruise since the Oct. 24 loss t

o Oregon, was limited in practice again Monday afternoon and might not be ready to play when UW visits UCLA this weekend.

Locker and backup Ronnie Fouch split practice snaps Monday, although it’s still undecided which one will play against the Bruins. Coach Steve Sarkisian said Monday that Locker is “questionable” for Saturday’s game.

“We’re not going to force him back on the field if he’s not healthy and ready to go,” Sarkisian said before the Huskies took the field for Monday’s afternoon practice. “I would anticipate that he would be, but it remains day-to-day.”

Locker, who also spoke before practice, said he suffered the injury at the end of a three-yard run on third-and-2. Oregon cornerback Javes Lewis went head-first into Locker’s thigh, but the junior quarterback stayed in the game and continued to play into the fourth quarter.

The team held Locker out of practices leading up to last Saturday’s bye, and the injury worsened.

“I thought it was a Charlie Horse-type of deal, and they usually go away after 10 minutes or so,” Locker said on Monday. “This one just kind of hung around for a little bit.”

Locker said that he felt “pretty good” before Monday’s practice, adding: “I should be ready to go (against UCLA). We’ll see how it progresses through the week.”

During his Monday press conference, Locker did not appear 100 percent confident of his Saturday return. But he was in good spirits, joking with reporters when they asked which leg was injured.

“Right leg,” he said, then chuckled and added: “I should have told you left.”

When Locker was finally asked whether he expected to be on the field for Saturday’s game, he offered: “I expect to be out there — definitely.”

Sarkisian isn’t taking any chances this week. So he’ll give Fouch many of the practice snaps while installing a game plan that is light on quarterback runs. While Sarkisian is holding out hope that his star quarterback will be available, he’s getting Plan B ready, just in case.

“It limits (the game plan) in terms of what you do with the ball in the quarterback’s hands to really run with the football,” Sarkisian said. “It would be foolish of us to have a bunch of plays where we’ve got quarterback runs called for Jake, or for Ronnie if it’s an injured Jake. And Ronnie, that’s not his strength.”

Fouch started eight games for the Huskies as a freshman last year but has yet to win one. The only other quarterbacks on the roster are true freshman Keith Price, whom Sarkisian is hoping to redshirt, and walk-on Taylor Bean, a third-year sophomore.

Locker, who was recently named as one of 15 semifinalists for the Davey O’Brien Award, is clearly the best quarterback on the UW roster. But Sarkisian was saying all the right things about the possibility of Fouch starting Saturday.

“I think the way this game plan is set up, I think Ronnie could go in and perform very well,” he said.

Fouch’s only action this season came at the end of two blowouts: a win over Idaho, and the loss to Oregon 10 days ago.

For the first time in his three seasons as a starter, Locker had steered clear of injuries this year. He suffered a concussion during his redshirt freshman year, a pulled hamstring in the weeks leading up to last season’s opener, and a broken thumb that kept him out of the final eight games of 2008.

“It comes with the territory of playing the sport,” Locker said Monday. “You are going to have to play with injuries because you’re not always going to be healthy and feeling 100 percent.

“It’s just something you have to get used playing this sport.”

The 2009 Huskies aren’t used to playing without Jake Locker. And they certainly don’t want to start now.

“I don’t want to put the kid in jeopardy out there and put a guy who is injured out there playing,” Sarkisian said. “So we’ll assess him and I really think it’s day-to-day with him. We have to see how he responds to this thing after a day of running on it.”