RB Warrick Dunn was one of 13 Bucs to sit out Monday's practice
As is their custom, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers held only a light workout on Monday afternoon after several hours of meetings. That's good, too, because the team would have had a difficult time fielding a full unit for an all-out practice.
Thirteen of the Bucs' 51 active players, more than one quarter of the roster, watched today's workout from the sideline, including nine starters. Among the walking wounded are defensive tackles Warren Sapp (knee strain) and Brad Culpepper (foot sprain), cornerbacks Donnie Abraham (knee sprain) and Ronde Barber (knee laceration), safeties John Lynch (thigh contusion) and Damien Robinson (hip strain), wide receivers Bert Emanuel (toe injury) and Reidel Anthony (quad strain), center Tony Mayberry (leg contusion), RB Warrick Dunn (ankle sprain), QB Trent Dilfer (clavicle fracture), LB Alshermond Singleton (leg fracture) and DE John McLaughlin (hand fracture).
Now, if you're a Bucs fan, and you're reading this at home, take a minute to breathe deeply and relax. Tampa Bay is not expecting to go into St. Louis for the NFC Championship Game with half a team. In fact, the team's training staff expects most of today's non-participants to be back on the field for Wednesday's first full workout and Thursday's follow-up. That's important, because the majority of a team's on-field preparation is conducted on those two days.
"We're going to be fine by Wednesday," said Dungy, "but it was a physical game (against Washington) and we have a lot of guys that had minor things but should be all right. Having an extra day off really helped us and we think by Wednesday we'll have 90 percent of the guys practicing. We anticipate everybody other than Al Singleton and Reidel Anthony probably practicing on Wednesday."
After Monday's workout, Buccaneers.com visited the team's training room, which is off limits to the media. The training staff reiterated what Dungy had indicated, that Singleton and Anthony were the two most significant injury issues. Though the team's official injury report is not posted until Wednesday, the training staff indicated that Singleton and Anthony were likely to be two of only three players listed as 'questionable' or worse, along with Dilfer, who is still attempting to recover from the broken right clavicle he incurred in Seattle on November 28. The training staff also provided additional information on the two players who suffered broken bones on the same play in Saturday's game, Singleton and McLaughlin.
Both players were hurt covering the kickoff that followed Mike Alstott's third quarter touchdown. Singleton fractured the fibula in his left leg and will miss the remainder of the season. McLaughlin broke the fifth metacarpal on his left hand but is not expected to miss any time. He has been fitted with a cast for practice that covers his ring and pinkie fingers on the left hand, and will wear a specially-designed cast for the game. Singleton and McLaughlin are two of the Buccaneers' most accomplished special teams players.
The Buccaneers and Rams will each submit an official injury report to the NFL on Wednesday morning, and it will be updated on Thursday and Friday, as needed. Buccaneers.com will post Tampa Bay's injury report on Wednesday morning and the Rams' report once it is communicated to the Buccaneers.
