Unfortunately for the Seahawks, there is a pretty good amount of injury news coming out of Sunday’s loss to Dallas. Perhaps most significantly, middle linebacker Bobby Wagner is dealing with a turf toe injury, and while Pete Carroll said they’re still uncertain about the severity of the injury, it could be something that causes Wagner to miss some games.
“He’s got turf toe, and we’ll have to just take this in the next couple of days and see what that means, but he’s banged up,” Carroll said.
While players are sometimes able to play through turf toe depending on the severity of the injury, that’s not always the case. Last season, left tackle Russell Okung needed surgery and missed eight games while on short-term injured reserve.
Asked if Wagner’s injury was similar to Okung’s, Carroll said, “Could be, yeah. We’re got to wait and see, we’ve got to assess that and figure that out.”
If Wagner misses any playing time, the Seahawks could either plug rookie Brock Coyle in at middle linebacker, or perhaps more likely, move K.J. Wright to middle linebacker and play Malcolm Smith at weakside linebacker.
The news was better on cornerback Byron Maxwell, who was thought to possibly have a high ankle sprain after the game. Instead, he has a calf strain, Carroll said.
“Like I didn’t know last night, he has a calf strain, so that’s encouraging,” Carroll said. “It took us a while to figure that out, so that shouldn’t be nearly as long as one of the kinds of sprains it could have been.”
Asked if Maxwell might be able to play this week, Carroll said, “I don’t know that. We’ll have to wait and see when we get back the next couple of days.”
The good news for Seattle and its thin secondary is that Tharold Simon, who is recovering from knee surgery, will practice this week, and possibly could play Sunday in St. Louis.
“Tharold will practice this week,” Carroll said. “It’s coming at an excellent time. We’ll see how he does. He’ll have to survive the week and all of that. He got out last eek for a couple of days, so that helps him get started this week. All along we’ve really been looking forward to Tharold’s ability to contribute, so this will be his chance. We’ll see where that fits this week. I really can’t tell you how it’s going to go. We’ll have wait until we get through Friday’s practice to know where we are with that.”
Even with Simon and Jeremy Lane (groin) improving—Lane is expected to return to practice next week, but because he is on short-term IR, he isn’t eligible for game action until the Nov. 9 game against the New York Giants—Carroll didn’t rule out the possibility of his team looking to add outside help to the roster.
“We’re always looking to see what we need to do to support our situation,” Carroll said. “The fact that Tharold is coming back and Jeremy Lane will be out practicing starting next week, we’re going to get a boost coming back from those guys. It would be fantastic if Tharold can contribute this week and Jeremy’s back the next.”
And speaking of Seattle’s banged-up secondary, safety Kam Chancellor made it through the game OK after sitting out practice last week with a hip injury, and Carroll said he’s expecting Chancellor to practice this week.
“I think he will,” Carroll said. “Judging from what I heard from him coming out of the game, he should be able to go this week. He didn’t practice a snap last week.”
Carroll was also asked about left tackle Russell Okung, who reportedly has a torn labrum in his shoulder, the result of an injury suffered in Seattle’s Week 3 win over Denver.
“Russell sprained his shoulder in a game a few weeks ago and returned to that game, and hasn’t missed a practice yet, so he’s been fine,” Carroll said.
Asked specifically about the report of a torn labrum, Carroll said, “When you sprain your shoulder, your labrum’s involved and there’s some stretching and stuff in there; I don’t know how far that went, but he came right back from it. He’s had full strength and support and all of that. He’s OK.”
On center Max Unger, who missed Sunday’s game with a foot injury, Carroll said, “We’ll keep taking Max a day at a time, see how he’s going. Steve Schilling stepped in and did a nice job, filled in well, but we’d love to get Max back. That will go all the way to the end of the week I’m sure.”
TE Zach Miller, who has missed two games since having ankle surgery, is still rehabbing and won’t be back to practice this week: “He’s still in the middle of his rehab, so we’re not counting on him this week.”
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