McCoy Feeling Fatigued, Fuzzy; Vick Progressing


Philadelphia Eagles RB LeSean McCoy.Running back LeSean McCoy and quarterback Michael Vick have both been officially ruled out for Monday night’s game against the Panthers.

McCoy is still feeling symptoms from a concussion he sustained in the final two minutes of last week’s loss to the Redskins, head athletic trainer Rick Burkholder said today.

“He’s got a headache. He’s got periodic dizziness with exertion, so we’re not exercising him. But if he goes up and down steps too fast or tries to pick up his baby, that kind of thing, he gets a little fuzzy,” Burkholder said. “It’s not nearly as bad as it was in Washington, but it’s still there. Very fatigued. He’s got some sleep issues where he sleeps a lot and then he’s awake and then he can’t get back to sleep – that kind of thing.  One of the things that he complains about is sensitivity to noise. Just noise in general is bothering him.”

McCoy is in phase one of the team’s five-phase program. That means he’s basically just resting. Once his symptoms diminish, McCoy will begin light exercise (on the bike, leg lifts, etc.).

Still, Burkholder was not ready to say that McCoy will definitely miss next week’s game against the Cowboys.

“He’s got to go through these criteria, and that can go day to day to day,” Burkholder said. “And by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week, he may have fulfilled all the things and be fine. We’ve had guys that have gone weeks, and then all of a sudden one day they are just able to sail through the program.”

Meanwhile, Vick has advanced to phase three, which involves working out to 80 percent of his target heart rate. Burkholder called it a “sprint-mode type workout” and normal lifting with the strength coaches.

“He doesn’t have any symptoms. He reports no symptoms – no headache, no vision problems, no nausea, no fatigue, anything right now,” Burkholder said. “He did his workout this morning. He didn’t report any symptoms there. In all likelihood, if nothing happens tonight, he’ll progress into phase four tomorrow, which is football activity, so start doing some throwing possibly tomorrow if he’s doing OK. I’ll get a couple receivers that he can throw to, go through a little workout with maybe Doug [Pederson] and Matt Nagy or Marty [Mornhinweg] and just get him to throw a little bit.”

In addition to clearing the final phases and passing the ImPACT test, Vick still has to be cleared by an independent neurologist and team physician Dr. Gary Dorshimer.

Bryce Brown will get the start for McCoy Monday night and carry the primary load. Dion Lewis and Stanley Havili could see some touches too. Nick Foles will get his second career start for Vick.

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.
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