Montreal Alouettes fans may have seen the last of running back Eric Lapointe for this season and beyond.
He suffered a fractured right leg in Friday's 27-26 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, but could return to the Canadian Football League team for the Eastern Division final on Nov. 12.
"The chances are pretty good that I'll play again [this season]," he told the Montreal Gazette on Tuesday. "I'm confident we'll finish first [in the East] and I'll only miss the last two [regular-season] games.
"I'm lucky it was the fibula and not the tibia.
Then I would have been done."
A Montreal native, Lapointe hurt himself during punt coverage in the third quarter when teammate Patrick Dorvelus and Saskatchewan's Rontarius Robinson collided and rolled onto Lapointe's leg.
Robinson, who had drilled Dorvelus in the back, was penalized for an illegal block.
Montreal general manager/interim coach Jim Popp said Lapointe sustained a clean break and the bone hasn't been displaced.
"If he can play, it won't be until the playoffs. How deep into the playoffs, we don't know," Popp said.
"It depends on how quickly the bone heals."
Lapointe racked up 132 yards on 18 carries for a 7.3-yard average in 15 games this season, his eighth in the CFL.
He wasn't the lone Alouette to get nicked up in Saskatchewan. Fellow running back Robert Edwards didn't practise on Tuesday because of tender and bruised ribs, but is expected to suit up for Saturday's home game versus Edmonton (CBC, 2:30 p.m.
ET).
In other CFL news Tuesday, the Eskimos released import defensive back Gerald Dixon, who played 28 games for the defending Grey Cup champions the past two seasons.
Dixon posted 48 defensive tackles, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery, one pass knockdown and two interceptions in 2006.
Toronto Argonauts kicker Noel Prefontaine might be forced to sit out Saturday's CFL game against Saskatchewan because of an injured right knee and ankle. Even on a very bad night, the Chicago Bears found a way to stay unbeaten. The Calgary Stampeders secured second place in the CFL's West Division Sunday with a 32-18 victory over the B.C. Lions at McMahon Stadium.
Former Saskatchewan Roughriders linebacker Trevis Smith was expressing frustration Monday after his aggravated sexual assault trial was delayed for a second time. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the U.S. is prepared to defend Japan if necessary given that North Korea has tested a nuclear weapon.
Ten more U.S. soldiers have been killed in bombings and combat during a single day in Iraq, the U.S.
military said Wednesday, raising the total number of soldiers killed in October to 69 in one of the deadliest months since the 2003 invasion.
Maher Arar will accept an international human rights award Wednesday, but won't travel to Washington for the honour over fears he'll be detained again. Thirty students at St. Francis Xavier University have become ill with what officials suspect is a Norwalk-type virus.
A coroner's inquest opens today into the mysterious death of a Royal Military College cadet who disappeared from his dormitory three years ago. Toronto police have charged a woman with concealing the body of her dead baby in a freezer for years before putting it in a river.
The number of regulated nurses working in Canada increased by two per cent between 2004 and 2005, but there could be a shortage in supply within a decade, a new report suggests. Thirty students at St. Francis Xavier University have become ill with what officials suspect is the Norwalk virus. Eight of Manitoba's 30 public health inspector positions are vacant, including both the jobs that monitor the northern half of the province. And northern mayors say the situation is unacceptable. Paul McCartney has denied allegations that he was violent toward Heather Mills McCartney during their four-year marriage. The Man Booker Prize for literature is branching out to create an Asian version of the prestigious award for English-language writing. CBC-TV's The Hour and its host, George Stroumboulopoulos, were big winners Tuesday night as the Gemini Awards for lifestyle, children's and youth categories were handed out. Apple says it "recently discovered that a small number" of Video iPods shipped with a virus that can affect computers running Microsoft's Windows. The world's nuclear powers have for the past decade forgone test blasts in favour of computer simulations, but it has turned out to be tougher than people thought to mimic the real thing. Universal Music Group is suing the operators of two video-sharing websites, claiming they illegally let users share music videos and other copyright material without permission.
News RSS