WP:Coles Has a Fractured Foot With Two Games Left, Surgery Likely After the Season

[TK]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8369-2003Dec17.html

Coles Has a Fractured Foot

With Two Games Left, Surgery Likely After the Season

By Mark Maske

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, December 18, 2003; Page D03

Washington Redskins wide receiver Laveranues Coles said yesterday he has played most of this season with a stress fracture in his right foot that might require offseason surgery.

Coles said he will play in the final two games and then doctors plan to place his foot in a cast for four to eight weeks before deciding if surgery is necessary. He said his foot has bothered him since shortly after the third game.

"If it doesn't heal, I'll have to have surgery," Coles said. "I don't want any excuses . . . I've dealt with it. It's no issue. It's no excuse. Once the season is over, I'm going to deal with it. It's not something I want to harp on. It will heal."

Coach Steve Spurrier said Coles will skip the last two games if necessary but the wide receiver wants to play and "usually feels pretty good on game day." Coles sat out yesterday's practice.

Coles is tied for eighth in the NFC with 69 catches and ranks seventh in the conference with 1,023 receiving yards. He has four receiving touchdowns and has averaged 14.8 yards per catch. But after starting the season with three straight 100-yard receiving games -- including a career-best day in a Week 2 win at Atlanta in which he had 11 receptions for 180 yards -- he has had only one 100-yard game. He was held without a catch in last Sunday's 27-0 loss to the Dallas Cowboys at FedEx Field.

He said that his season has fallen short of his expectations, particularly with the Redskins at 5-9. The Redskins signed Coles, 25, to a seven-year, $35 million contract that included a $13 million signing bonus, sending a first-round draft choice to the New York Jets as compensation for the restricted free agent last offseason. He had 89 catches for 1,264 yards and five touchdowns for the Jets last season.

"I didn't have the numbers I had last year," Coles said. "I didn't have as good a year as last year. I wasn't able to help the team win as many games as I'd like. You'd always like to go to a new place and improve."

The Redskins aren't complaining. Coles has fit in well and has been a locker-room leader who has earned the respect of his teammates because of his work ethic and no-nonsense approach. He revealed the extent of his injury only after being pressed by reporters. The injury previously had been described by the Redskins as "turf toe," but Coles's teammates knew he was playing hurt.

"I've been aware of it," cornerback Champ Bailey said. "But he's not going to complain. He's going to play regardless."

Coles became the second key member of the Redskins' offense to disclose that he played almost the entire season with a foot injury. Quarterback Patrick Ramsey underwent surgery on Monday in Charlotte to have a tiny piece of bone removed and a tendon repaired in his right foot. Ramsey, who will wind up missing the final five games, is on crutches and in a cast and has been told by his doctors that he should be able to run in three months.

"I think we're all pretty confident that it's going to be gone now," Ramsey said yesterday at Redskins Park. "It was a situation where it wasn't going to go away [without surgery]. It wasn't getting any better, although we tried to wait it out. They [his doctors] do feel very confident that it's not going to be an issue after this."

Redskins Notes: Spurrier continued to express support for his assistant coaches without detailing his plans for his coaching staff next season. He again talked about the need for the team to make significant changes before next season, but stressed that he never has mentioned firing assistants and said that blame for the Redskins' woes should be directed at him. "The guy most responsible is me," Spurrier said. "The head coach -- he gets the record."

People familiar with the Redskins' deliberations said this week that they expect offseason changes to Spurrier's staff. Defensive coordinator George Edwards and offensive line coach Kim Helton have been under particularly intense scrutiny . . . The Redskins practiced at a nearby indoor facility, the Dulles SportsPlex, for the second time in a seven-day span.

[Prosperity]

He has been playing with a foot injury through out this season and still our best player?

You gotta love Coles

[Riggo-toni]

Yeah, he IS the Man!!!