Notebook: Naaman Roosevelt could return Monday

Judging by Naaman Roosevelt’s presence at practice Saturday, his absence from the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ lineup may be over.

The CFL team put the veteran slotback on the six-game injured list one week ago, opting to give the right knee he injured in a game Sept. 22 against the Toronto Argonauts a chance to heal.

As a result, Roosevelt didn’t play against the host Montreal Alouettes last Sunday — and his status for Monday’s game against the visiting Edmonton Eskimos (2 p.m., CKRM, TSN) was in doubt as well.

On Saturday, however, Roosevelt was back on the practice field and he was working with the starting offence.

“I played the full game against Toronto and I thought I was good, but a couple of days after, it just wasn’t feeling right,” Roosevelt said. “We just tried to take it day by day and, the past couple of days, I’ve been feeling good, so Coach (Chris Jones) said, ‘Come out here, work on it and see what you can do.’ ”

Roosevelt sprained his right knee late in the second quarter of the game in Toronto, but he finished the contest. After the team returned to Regina, Roosevelt’s knee started swelling and he was put on the six-game injured list as a precaution.

He was pulled off the list this week so that he could practise and potentially play Monday.

“You don’t ever want to make light of any injury, but then again, you don’t want to risk further injury if you play a guy,” Jones said in reference to putting Roosevelt on the six-game list. “We did the safe thing.

“Ryan (Raftis, the team’s head athletic therapist) has assured me that (Roosevelt) is ready to go and Naaman has assured me that he’s ready to go. It was good to have him back (for Saturday’s practice).”

The game in Montreal was the first one Roosevelt has missed this season. Ironically, the Roughriders recorded a season-high 394 passing yards without him, with Kyran Moore (126 yards) and Shaq Evans (114) each going over the century mark.

Roosevelt, meanwhile, could only watch on TV.

“It’s always tough when you want to be out there with your teammates,” said Roosevelt, who leads the Roughriders in targets (83), is second in receptions (48) and is third in receiving yards (570) this season.

“You work so hard to stay healthy and to be on the field with your team and you want to be that guy to be healthy and make those plays. It’s definitely frustrating, but I know (being hurt) comes with the game.

“Things like that happen. For me, it’s just to stay focused, take it day by day and make sure I’m ready.”

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While Roosevelt was back on the field Saturday, Evans was not.

“Shaq bumped his knee the other day,” Jones said, referring to an incident at the end of Thursday’s practice when Evans hurt himself after stumbling while attempting to catch a pass. “We’ll just have to see whether he’s going to be ready to go or not.”

Evans has started all but one game this season, catching 37 passes for 606 yards. He’s coming off his best statistical game of the campaign, the aforementioned six-catch, 114-yard performance Sunday in Montreal.

On Saturday, Kenny Shaw was in Evans’ spot at wide receiver while Roosevelt lined up at his normal slotback position.

Jones wouldn’t say definitively if Evans was out for Monday’s game or if Shaw will play in his spot, but it’s a distinct possibility.

“We get paid to coach professional football,” Jones said, “so we’d better be dang ready to put somebody there if Shaq ain’t ready.”

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The Ottawa Redblacks didn’t do the Roughriders any favours on Friday, but Saskatchewan defensive back Loucheiz Purifoy wasn’t bitter.

Ottawa rallied from a 34-19 deficit to tie the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and force overtime, but Winnipeg got the only touchdown of overtime to prevail 42-34.

The Bombers improved to 8-7-0 and pulled within two points of the Roughriders (9-5-0) in the race for second place in the West Division.

Purifoy doesn’t watch scoreboards to see what’s going on in other locales; instead, he watches every game to see who’s doing what.

“Anytime it’s a West team versus an East team, you always want the East team to win,” he said. “But that was a hell of a game last night. You can’t do anything about that.

“They both came out and fought hard; you just had somebody who wanted it more.Those boys are fighting for something.”

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Roughriders cornerback Nick Marshall hails from Rochelle, Ga., so he has been out of his element over the past couple of weeks in Saskatchewan.

While Saturday was a beautiful fall day, temperatures in the province have been lower than normal of late. That has been a shock to some of the American-born players who are in their first seasons in Saskatchewan.

“(The veteran players) were telling me it’s going to get even colder, so I’ve got to get prepared for this weather,” Marshall said. “I’m really not used to it.”

And how will he prepare for the cold weather?

“I really don’t think you can get used to it,” he replied. “You’ve just got to stay warm.”

Marshall said he “kind of sort of” played in a snow game during his days in junior college, but that was the only one. It’s unlikely that Monday’s game will feature any flakes, but Marshall has been told to expect to play in snow this season.

“It’s going to be a great experience for me because I never got to play in it before,” he said. “It should be a great feeling.”