The Seahawks took to the field Wednesday afternoon to begin preparation for their Week 15 game at Carolina, and before practice got underway, head coach Pete Carroll met with the media where he provided a number of health updates on his team.
DE Ziggy Ansah
Ansah missed last week's game due to a stinger, but has a good chance to get back this week.
"Ziggy's practicing today," Carroll said. "He's got a chance, a real good chance to be OK, but he has to still prove it. It's a strength issue right now."
DE Jadeveon Clowney
Clowney, who has been playing with a core-muscle injury, is the latest Seahawk to get hit with the flu bug that affected several players in Week 13: "He's sick today. He got the flu thing. It finally hit him."
LB Mychal Kendricks
Kendricks, who missed last week's game with a hamstring injury, won't practice Wednesday, but is running.
"He ran yesterday and I think he's going again today," Carroll said. "He won't practice today, so we'll have to wait and see all the way to the end of the week to see if he can make it back."
LB Cody Barton
Barton, who made his first career start in place of Kendricks, briefly left that game with what Carroll described as knee and ankle injuries, but plans on practicing this week.
"Cody's going today," Carroll said. "He got a little banged up in the game, but he came back and got back in. He's just kind of like denying being hurt, it's not there. So we'll see how he does during the week."
WR Tyler Lockett
Lockett has not missed any games this season, but he has recently dealt with a shin contusion as well as the flu over the past month. Carroll said those things are all behind Lockett now: "I think he's really back. He felt really good last week, and he's going into this week raring to go. He's fine."
TE Luke Willson
Willson is trying to make it back this week from the hamstring injury that has kept him out of the past three games.
"He's chomping at the bit to play this week," Carroll said. "He's politicking, like those guys in Washington D.C. he is working it. Give him credit, he wants to play in the worst way. He ran well today, he was really pumped up about it—he told me at least four times how well he looked in his workouts, so he's working at it."
FB Nick Bellore
Bellore has missed two games with a quadriceps injury, but could make it back this week: "Nick's got a chance to come back. He's going to practice today, and we're thinking that if he makes it through the week—we'll wait to determine that—but he should be able to play for us. That's a big plus for us, he has been a real factor for us on (special) teams, a real good factor for us, so we're looking forward to him coming back."
RB Rashaad Penny
Carroll already confirmed Monday that Penny is out for the season with a knee injury, but he gave a bit more detail on the injury, saying that the second-year running back will have surgery, but not right away while they wait for swelling to go down. The ACL is the primary injury, Carroll said, but as is often with the case with serious knee injuries, doctors will look for other damage while repairing the injury.
"There's some other stuff they'll look at when they get in there," Carroll said. "He will have surgery. He's not going in immediately, they're going to let it quiet down before they do that. It's a long haul to get him back, so we're going take all the right precautions to make sure we start the process at the right time. They've got to get in there and figure out what's going on, but it's ACL damage that they're mainly concerned with."
