Wade Smith misses practice with knee issue

Posted Oct 5, 2012

Texans left guard did not practice on Friday because of a knee issue, but he is expected to play on Monday night against the New York Jets.

Smith, a 10th-year veteran who has started 36 consecutive games for the Texans, had fluid drained from his knee.

“It was precautionary,” Texans coach Gary Kubiak said. “We’re just holding him. He will come back and work tomorrow. (His knee) swells on him from time to time. Wade’s played a lot of ball, so yesterday we took him in to get it drained. He wanted to go today, but we just held him.”

Kubiak said he is not concerned about Smith’s availability for Monday night.

“I think he’ll be fine,” Kubiak said. “I think he’ll walk in here tomorrow and tell you he practiced, took all his reps, he’s ready to go, so that was just us. It’s good for (rookie third-round draft pick) to get a lot of reps because you never know when he’s going to be up, so it was just our decision.”

Starting right guard is dealing with a sprained ankle but was able to practice again on Friday. Caldwell has rotated with rookie in the last three games.

“He’s battling through it,” Kubiak said. “I think it’s going to be something he just going to have to battle through. Hopefully, he gets through clean a couple weeks, and Ben’s there to help him. We’ll go back and take a look at it, but all signs indicate to him being ready to go as of right now.”

Running back (toe), wide receiver (knee) and safety (forearm) did not practice on Friday. Demps is out this week. Jean is unlikely to play.

Tate “could have done some stuff today if we wanted him to,” Kubiak said. He will return to practice on Saturday, at which point the Texans will get a gauge of his prognosis for Week 5.

“We’ll work Tate tomorrow, see where he’s at,” Kubiak said. “There’s a lot of time between Saturday and game time this week because of the Monday night game, but we will get him some work tomorrow to see if he’s available and go from there. x

would be the Texans’ second running back behind if Tate is unable to play on Monday.

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