TEMPE, Ariz. -- Three days after he tore a ligament in his left elbow, Arizona quarterback Kurt Warner hopes he'll play Sunday at Washington.
It's too early to tell whether he will.
"Would I love to play on Sunday? Sure I would," Warner said after limited participation in Wednesday's practice. "I'm going to go forward with the idea that I can. But we've just got to weigh all the options and make sure that it's something that I can do."
Warner said doctors told him he's not risking a worse injury by playing. The biggest issue, Warner said, may be finding the right brace. Warner tried several at practice, but had trouble finding one that provided enough support for the badly swollen joint on his non-throwing arm.
He said it was most painful when he extended his arm to hand off, but that throwing isn't a problem.
"The huge key is really trying to find the right brace to really stabilize it," he said. "There are a couple of braces that the arm was just really loose. And when it's loose and it's kind of wobbling with the ligaments, you can't deal with that."
Warner's presence would help stabilize the Cardinals' offense, which is reeling from the loss of two starting quarterbacks in an eight-day span.
Warner tore a ligament trying to recover his own fumble in a 25-10 home loss to Carolina on Sunday. He was starting in place of Matt Leinart, who was lost for the season with a broken collarbone one week earlier.
The Cardinals played most of the Carolina game with Tim Rattay, an eight-year NFL veteran who had been helping his father, Jim, coach a Phoenix-area high school team. Rattay played for the San Francisco 49ers for six years before being traded to Tampa Bay, where he played in four games a year ago.
The club also signed Tim Hasselbeck this week as a backup, and he and Rattay took turns running the offense on Wednesday.
The 6-foot-1, 214-pound Hasselbeck had been working in radio and television since his release by the New York Giants on Sept. 1. He appeared in two games for the Giants in 2005, but didn't attempt a pass.
Coach Ken Whisenhunt wouldn't rule out Warner or select a starter. He denied he was being vague in an effort to keep the Redskins off-balance.
"Maybe we'll go with a three-quarterback platoon this week and see if we can get that one to work," Whisenhunt said with a chuckle. "It's not so much gamesmanship. We've got to find the guy that we feel comfortable with doing what we can do.
"We're going to see how much Kurt can do, see if there's something that he can do for us in the game," Whisenhunt said. "And after that, we've got to make a decision between the two Tims."
If the 36-year-old Warner doesn't play, this will be the fourth year since 2001 the two-time NFL MVP has missed games due to injury.
Wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who has missed three games with a hip injury, practiced and said he would play against the Redskins.
Boldin's return should help an offense that mustered only 10 points in a loss to Carolina last week. He said the Cardinals shouldn't use their quarterback woes as an alibi.
"If Kurt doesn't go, it just puts more emphasis on us to make plays," Boldin said.
Meanwhile, Pro Bowl safety Adrian Wilson sat out practice with a hamstring injury, and it's not clear whether he'll be available Sunday.
Even with its injury problems, Arizona (3-3) is tied with Seattle for the lead in the feeble NFC West, where the four teams have a combined 8-15 record. The only NFC West team that didn't lose last Sunday was San Francisco, which had a bye.
Last week, Rattay tried to run the offense after only three days of practice, and the Cardinals struggled with turnovers and penalties. He said an extra week of practice will make a big difference.
"I'm going to just try to keep learning this offense as fast as I can," Rattay said. "I feel a lot better this Wednesday than I did last Wednesday."
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
