RENTON — Receiver Sidney Rice, who has not seen game action since his 2011 season ended early following a second concussion, will play against the Chiefs Friday night, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said.
After going on injured reserve last year, Rice had surgery on both shoulders, which led to him coming back limited this season. Rice was in a red jersey, signifying no contact, until last week (well, aside from one day when he ditched it on his own early in camp), and was not full-go in practice until Tuesday. Now he’ll get a chance to experience some game contact.
“Sidney’s going to play in this game, and we’re anxious to see him get out there,” Carroll said. “He’s had a fantastic process getting back, he’s done everything we’ve asked him to do, he’s practicing really, really well, so we’ll get him a little bit of play time just to kind of break the ice on that one. I’m really excited to tell you that, because this has been a long process to get him back. He’s just looked so good, it’s time.”
“As we’ve stepped up his activity in practice, each day that we’ve done that, he’s done something more and demonstrated that he’s ready. He’s risen to the challenge of that, and it’s worked out really, really well.”
But while Rice’s return represents some pretty good news on the injury front, Carroll also delivered some bad news for the Seahawks Wednesday, saying that cornerback Roy Lewis will need knee surgery.
Lewis’ 2010 season ended with a knee injury, and the recovery from that surgery kept him out of the first six games of last season. This “knee issue” as Carroll described it, is to Lewis’ other knee, and Carroll would not get into the details of the injury.
“He does have a knee issue and he’s going to get operated on,” Carroll said. “We’re going to have to see how that goes. It’s on his other knee. We won’t know what that means until they get in there and fix him up and see what it is. It’s kind of been an ongoing process, he didn’t get injured, it’s just been developing over time, so we’ll hold a good thought and hopefully we can get him cleaned up and be able to get him back.”
Quarterback Matt Flynn was held out of most of Wednesday’s practice to rest his arm, but Carroll said Flynn will be able to play in Friday’s game, which will be started by rookie Russell Wilson.
“We just rested his arm today,” Carroll said. “We just wanted to give him a shot to keep him out of one day of throwing before the weekend.”
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