updated 6:21 p.m. ET Sept. 24, 2007

KIRKLAND, Wash. - Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander has a broken left wrist, but will continue to play with a protective cast.

Coach Mike Holmgren said Monday further pictures on what was thought to be a sprain revealed a small crack. The coach added that Alexander’s wrist will heal in a few weeks if immobilized whether he plays or not. So Alexander will start on Sunday at San Francisco (2-1).

“What they found was — now let me just say, everyone calm down here — they found a small crack in his wrist, OK?” Holmgren said, knowing any news of Alexander with a cracked bone may become big since the 2005 league MVP missed six games last season with a broken foot. “They don’t think it’s anything any more serious than it was. It’s small.

“He will wear the cast for a while. He’s not going to take the cast off. We do not have to have a ’Cast Watch,’ you know. He will wear the cast and will wear it for a while.”

Alexander first hurt the wrist in a victory over Tampa Bay on Sept. 9. He’s worn a cast during practices and in two games since. Trainers have been sawing off the cast each day, and then Alexander has been using a bone stimulation machine at home.

“It takes, I don’t know, a few weeks for this thing to knit,” Holmgren said of the cracked bone.

Alexander left Sunday’s victory over Cincinnati while holding his wrist after linebacker Lemar Marshall tackled him at the end of a 5-yard run late in the first half.

“That tweaked it just a little bit,” Holmgren said. “He got it banged, so they took more pictures.”

Alexander initially was wearing a smaller, less cumbersome cast Sunday than the one he wore in Week 2 at Arizona. But when he returned in the second half he was wearing a larger, more protective cast.

He finished with 100 yards rushing, 44 in the final quarter, including a 14-yard run on fourth-and-1 that set up the winning touchdown pass with 1 minute left for Seattle (2-1).

“I’m pretty beat up,” Alexander said after the game. “These last three weeks have probably been the most physical for me in a long time.”

Monday’s news immediately recalled the crack in Alexander’s foot that started as a severe bruise in Week 1 last season. He played three games before further tests found a fracture. He missed six games and finished with fewer than 1,000 yards rushing for the first time since he became Seattle’s feature back in 2001.

“Are you comparing it with his foot?” Holmgren said, firmly. “This is not the same deal. It is not the same thing. It is not going to prevent him from playing. He is just probably going to get more used to wearing the cast, is what it is.”

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When asked after Sunday’s game if it is getting easier to play with the cast after two games, Alexander said flatly, “No. You play with one hand, it’s just different.”

Alexander had run for 275 yards on 66 carries with two touchdowns through three games — an average of 4.2 yards that is just below his career average of 4.4 entering this season. But he looked hesitant at times while running Sunday and dropped two passes he tried to catch with his one healthy hand.

At halftime, he had nine carries, 22 yards and more boos than the league MVP from two seasons ago has heard at home, maybe ever.

“Yeah, I think they were reading my mind,” Alexander said.

“You all know how high I set my goals. No one will ever be more frustrated than I will be.”

Holmgren thinks the wrist and cast has changed Alexander’s game.

“Yeah, you watch him run, and you watch him fall. You know, it’s just he’s a little reluctant,” Holmgren said. “He’s aware of it being there.”

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