Simon Taking Leg Injury Slow

Geroy Simon's debut with the Saskatchewan Roughriders was an abbreviated one during the preseason finale last Thursday.  He barely made it through a quarter before leaving the game with what has been described as a leg injury.

Simon was the focus on Tuesday morning when the Riders returned to the field at Mosaic Stadium for their first practice in preparation for the regular season opener.  He was seen at the start and near the end of practice, but not in pads.

“I'm not concerned, he's progressing and I'd like to see how much he does (Wednesday),” said head coach Corey Chamblin after the workout.  “He's not ruled out as of yet.  I'll give him until Day 3 to see if he can move into it and if he can't then we'll make a decision about it.”

“It's kind of a day-to-day thing, I keep getting better everyday,” Simon added.  “I'll do more sprinting (Wednesday).”

Simon had to deal with a hamstring injury last season with BC and the 37-year-old says it isn't age catching up to him.

“As a receiver, you're going to get hamstrings, quads and calf injuries.  All we do is run and the slightest thing can be off and you can get a pull or a strain, so I don't think it matters about the age, I've been doing this for a long time and I'm in pretty good shape,” said Simon.

“I want to play and I haven't been injured pretty much my whole career.  I'm not even use to sitting out practices, but in the end you've got to be patient and you've got to be smart.  That's something I didn't do last year and I rushed back from an injury and I'm not going to do that this year.”

Chamblin likes to have players practicing by Day 3 if they're going to play in the game, so that would be Thursday this week.  It looks like whether or not Simon plays will come down to then, but both the coach and player are leaving it up to the medical staff.

“We have confidence in the training staff, they know what they're doing and you have to trust what they say,” Simon said.  “They're doing all the right things to get me 100 percent.”

“It depends on how much the medical staff thinks where he is and they can give me a good percentage,” said Chamblin.  “Depends on how much he can do and if he can get past individual drills before we make that decision.”

Riders News & Notes:

-- Greg Carr was taking the reps in Simon's spot during team drills and seems likely to fill in if Simon can't go on Saturday in Edmonton.

-- John Chick was absent from practice on Tuesday to tend to some personal matters.  Chamblin said his flights back from Jacksonville were delayed and he would be on the field on Wednesday.

-- The new CFL media policy allows the Riders to close one practice per week to fans and media, but Chamblin said on Tuesday that they would be keeping them open for the the time being.

“The practices will be open as long as we're smart about what we're doing as fans,” he said.  “We just have to make sure that the information that's given is not the information that can be used by other teams.

“If there's some things that are out of the norm that they see, I think that they're football smart here to understand that we made changes and our opponents don't know we made changes and we don't need them to until game time.”

-- The Riders are back on the field on Wednesday at 10:45am and Thursday at 11:00am at Mosaic Stadium.