NT Shaun Cody injures ribs against Bills

Posted Nov 5, 2012

The Texans’ biggest injury concern coming out of their victory against the Buffalo Bills is nose tackle , who injured his ribs during the game.

Cody left the game briefly in the third quarter after making a tackle on Bills running back Fred Jackson. He returned before the end of the quarter and continued to play.

“Shaun Cody has got some rib issues,” Texans coach Gary Kubiak said on Monday afternoon. “He’s actually right now being evaluated; they’re doing an MRI and some things. We’re dealing with that. Other than that, we came out just a little nicked.”

Kubiak said tight end has a bruised hip and wide receiver has tightness in his groin. Both players may be limited at practice early in the week but should be fine.

Running back is still on the mend from a hamstring injury that kept him out of Sunday’s game. Kubiak does not know if Tate will be available for the Texans’ upcoming game at Chicago.

“I don’t think I can answer that right now,” Kubiak said. “I thought Ben would be further along when we got to the end of last week. He wasn’t. We went ahead and rested him through the weekend. It’s not like we worked him out or anything. He did nothing today but rehab. For me to say ‘Yes, he’s going to be there,’ I think is a little bit of a stretch right now. I’m hoping. I’m hoping Wednesday or Thursday he’s back on the field doing some stuff at least with the trainers and we’ll see, but (he’s) not as far as long as we had expected.”

If Cody is to miss any time, third-year nose tackle would replace him in the starting lineup. Cody and Mitchell have rotated for the last two seasons. The Texans also signed nose tackle last week.

“Shaun’s dealt with other issues with his back, so we’ve got him on a (maintenance) program,” Kubiak said. “He’s playing about 20 plays a game, maybe 25 at the most, so just the combination of those things working together would concern me. But he’s always shown a way to be there for us, so we’ll see.”

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