Durant Practices, But Doesn't Do Much

Durant Watch continued at Saskatchewan Roughriders practice on Thursday as they prepare to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday

The Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback shed the walking boot from Wednesday and was back in pads.  He took some snaps with the first team offence, but didn't do much as he was out of pads before the end of practice.

“It's still pretty much up in the air right now,” said Darian Durant after practice at Mosaic Stadium.  “It's getting better day-by-day and we'll see where we are come Saturday.”

Durant is expected to remain a game time decision for their game against the Tiger-Cats, but head coach Corey Chamblin is optimistic, especially with Durant playing on the injured right foot last week with success.

“If it doesn't swell up, we'll probably see him on game day,” said Chamblin.  “He did enough today to where he made it through and got the reads that he needed.”

The biggest concern right now for Durant and the Riders is the plane ride to Toronto as after the injury first occurred two weeks ago in Toronto, the plane ride home caused his foot to swell.

“I'm going to make sure I get it wrapped up, get in that boot, make sure I don't put as much pressure on it and hopefully it works out,” Durant said.

The short week is also a concern for Durant.  The team had a ten-day break between their last two games, but only six days between the two meetings with Hamilton.

“We had six days before I even had to worry about practicing coming off that Thursday night Toronto game, and then with this being a short week, that's pretty much cut in half, so I'm not surprised at all (that the injury is still lingering),” he said.

“It's all about rest.  The thing about football is that you may have a short week and you may have a couple extra days to rest up the next week, so we just have to keep it week-by-week and keep the treatments going and try to stay off it as much as we can.”

Durant does have experience dealing with a similar injury in college, and that they will keep an eye on it over the next few days.

It appears likely that Durant will play, despite the limited practice time, and playing Hamilton for a second straight week because the game plan won't been too much different going into Saturday.

The Riders have travelled to Guelph and will have a walkthrough on Friday.  They kick-off from Alumni Stadium against the Ti-Cats on Saturday at 5:30pm.