Seahawks coach Pete Carroll provided some news on two injured defensive players during his usual Monday appearance on 710 ESPN Seattle. Carroll confirmed that Kam Chancellor, who has missed the past two games with a neck injury, will not return this season, and said that Cliff Avril, who is on injured reserve with a neck injury, will have surgery this week.

"Kam, he's not going to make it back," Carroll said. "He's not coming back this year… Cliff's going to get surgery on Tuesday, get fixed up. We're really happy about that, because he needs to get all fixed up."

Even with both of those players out for the season, they, as well as injured cornerback Richard Sherman, have still been around the team helping in any way they can.

"I couldn't help but say something to both of those guys afterwards, just that they were all over it," Carroll said. "Kam was right with us, his voice was in the locker room with us. His presence was totally there and apparent. Those guys have been fantastic, and Sherm has been as well. We're very fortunate; these guys have such great character and such integrity and such love for this team, so they really have done everything they could."

On a more positive injury note, Carroll said cornerback Shaquill Griffin will be back this week after missing Sunday's game with a concussion. Also back this week is running back Mike Davis, who was out against the 49ers with a groin injury.

And even with some of their top defensive players like Chancellor, Avril and Sherman out for the season, Carroll noted that the Seahawks are getting healthier in a lot of other areas. Left guard Luke Joeckel returned Sunday from a five-game absence, marking the first game he and recently-acquired left tackle Duane Brown had played together. With Davis coming back, the Seahawks will be as healthy at running back as they have been in a long time and overall they're healthy on offense other than the concussion sustained by Luke Willson on Sunday.

"I'm fired up because we're healthier now than we've been," Carroll said. "That sounds crazy, but we're healthier now than we've been up front. The running backs are going to be OK, the receivers are OK, we'll see if Luke can get back this week, but he'll be coming back to us."

Willson's was the most significant injury to come out of Sunday's game, and as is always the case with the concussion protocol, his status won't be known until later in the week.  

Running back Chris Carson remains on injured reserve, but could be back before the end of the season.

"It's getting closer," Carroll said. "We need to see his workouts, see what they're saying about it, but the thought is that he's really ramping it up to see how hard he can go with the trainers and all of that, then we'll see what that means. But there's a chance in the next few weeks that he has a shot to come back."