Turns out Marcus Trufant’s back injury was serious, after all.
Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Monday that the 30-year-old cornerback had been placed on the season-ending injured reserve list with the same spinal disk issue that kept him out of the first six games of the 2009 season.
“It’s a big loss,” Seattle linebacker Leroy Hill said. “He’s been here a long time. He’s dependable. He’s been to Pro Bowls. I can always look out and I know Tru’s got his side and he’s going to do his job out there.”
Team doctors initially diagnosed Trufant with a bruised sacrum leading up to the team’s impressive road win against the New York Giants on Oct. 9. Trufant was replaced in the starting lineup by second-year pro Walter Thurmond and watched from the sideline.
However, Carroll said the team’s medical staff took a closer look at Trufant’s injury during the bye week and realized that he was suffering from the same back problem that forced him to miss the early portion of the 2009 season.
“We’re just really disappointed for him,” Carroll said. “He’s the captain on our team, and just a beautiful kid, in our program and in the community and all of that. He’s going to miss this season that means so much to him and all of us, but it’s the right thing to do.
“We’ve got to take care of him. This is a reoccurring back situation. We didn’t realize this is really what happened before, so we’ve got to take care of them.”
Thurmond will get the starting assignment at cornerback opposite Brandon Browner.
Carroll said that Trufant is trying to avoid surgery, just as he did two years ago, when he elected to rehab his back.
Drafted No. 11 overall by Seattle in the 2003 out of Washington State, the Wilson High graduate played in 124 games for Seattle with 21 career interceptions, including two returned for touchdowns.
Trufant made his only Pro Bowl in 2007.
Trufant took a pay cut in base salary from $5.9 million to $3 million this season, although he could have earned most of the money back in incentives
Carroll said that Trufant is approaching the injury as if he will be ready for the beginning of training camp in 2012.
“We haven’t even talked about that yet,” Carroll said. “We’re just trying to get through the shock of what this is. But I would think that’s definitely on his mind.”
With Trufant out, Hill is the only player on Seattle’s active roster who played on the 2005 Super Bowl team.
“I’m the last man standing,” said a joking Hill. “And I’m going to try and keep standing, too. But I feel good and everything. And losing another veteran, the other veterans have to step up.”
Eric D. Williams: 253-597-8437
eric.williams@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/seahawks
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