Riders-Durant-July11

The Saskatchewan Roughriders were back on the practice field at Mosaic Stadium on Wednesday, but quarterback Darian Durant wasn’t with them.

Durant was back in a walking boot, just like last week, as he continues to deal with a sprained right foot that caused him to be a game-time decision for last week’s game against Hamilton.

“It kind of swelled up on me over the past couple of days, so we’re just being smart about it, being cautious,” said Durant, who’s been wearing the boot since Sunday’s 37-0 win over the Tiger-Cats.

Durant seemed fine during the game, throwing for 347 yards and four touchdowns, while winning offensive player of the week.  He did take a couple of hits during the game, but he said nothing that made the injury worse.

“It was just coming from the pounding, starting and stopping, dropping and running,” he said.  “All the normal things that happen during a game, it didn’t really respond well to that.”

So we’re back to square one with the foot.  Last week, Durant missed the first day of practice, but then gradually made his way back and was taking the majority of first team reps by the end of the week.  The Riders have a short week this week with only two days of practice, so that could make things a little more tricky.

“Right now he’s day-to-day,” said head coach Corey Chamblin.  “We’re just still taking the same precautions that we did last week to make sure that we give him a little more healing time.”

Durant said he believes he’ll be on the field come Saturday in Hamilton, and isn’t worried about getting on the field for practice this week.

“We’re going to take it day-by-day and see how this thing feels, but as of right now, I hope to be able to go,” he said.

“We just don’t have as much time in between games as we did last week, so we have to really be smart about it and know that the buy is coming up, so we don’t want to make things worse.”

It will be waiting and see mode for Rider Nation this week as the Riders prepare to face Hamilton on Saturday.  The team will practice again on Thursday at Mosaic Stadium and then travel to Guelph for a walkthrough on Friday.  They kick off on Saturday at 5:30pm.

Riders News & Notes:

-- One player that is out for this coming week will be Scott McHenry.  He suffered a shoulder injury and Chamblin said he would be out for the next one to two weeks, which isn’t as bad with a bye week coming up.

-- The Riders released defensive lineman Will Davis on Wednesday, while adding non-import offensive lineman Brendan Dunn and import offensive lineman Devin Tyler to the practice roster.