Jets' Plaxico Burress Sidelined With Ankle Injury

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. (AP) — Plaxico Burress will have to wait at least another day before he returns to the football field.

The New York Jets' newly signed wide receiver will be sidelined for a day or two after he tweaked his left ankle running routes by himself — no one throwing to him or defending him — on Wednesday. Both he and coach Rex Ryan said Thursday that the injury is not "significant."

"I was running around, trying to stay sharp," Burress said.

Burress was expected to take the field for the first time Thursday once the collective bargaining agreement was ratified, which would allow newly signed players to practice. Burress, who served 20 months in prison on a gun charge, was signed Sunday and has been watching training camp practices from the sideline since Monday.

The ankle is not the same one that he had chronic problems with while playing for the Giants.

Burress said he could practice if he was allowed to and would definitely play if the Jets had a regular-season game. Ryan added that the team just wants to be cautious and make sure Burress is ready to go for the team's season opener against Dallas on Sept. 11.

"We have to do what's best for him," Ryan said.

Burress, who turns 34 on Aug. 12, caught the winning touchdown pass in the Giants' upset of the unbeaten New England Patriots in the 2008 Super Bowl, but his career derailed after he accidentally shot himself in the thigh at a Manhattan nightclub that November.

He pleaded guilty in August 2009 to attempted criminal possession of a weapon, accepting a two-year prison term. He was released about three months early for good behavior, but will be on parole for two years.

New York signed Burress to a one-year deal worth $3.017 million fully guaranteed, without even seeing him practice. Burress said he was confident he would be able to be a top receiver again despite the long layoff. He worked out with NFL quarterbacks such as Matthew Stafford and Byron Leftwich in South Florida after he was released from prison.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.