updated 5:53 p.m. ET Sept. 1, 2005

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Doctors have placed a stent in an artery in Trent Green’s lower left leg and put the Kansas City quarterback on blood-thinners in an effort to restore full circulation.

Green, who underwent four operations on his left knee six years ago, will not play in Friday night’s exhibition game at St. Louis but does plan to be ready for the Sept. 11 season opener against the New York Jets.

“By Wednesday, I’ll be able to do everything full-go and be ready to go with no complications or problems for the opener,” he said Thursday. “That was one of the things I wanted to find out.”

Doctors were not able to say with certainty what caused the condition that led to numbness and lack of feeling in the leg and foot and caused him to come out of last Saturday’s game against Seattle in the first quarter.

It may be related to the succession of surgeries Green required after his knee injury in the 1999 preseason. But doctors are not pointing to football contact as the cause.

“That’s the hard part for me is not knowing how it happened,” said Green, who underwent the surgery on Tuesday. “I really haven’t taken any sort of hits or uncomfortable twists or turns or anything like that that could have done it.”

Anything that keeps Green on the sideline could be disastrous for the Chiefs. His backup, Todd Collins, has a hand injury and probably won’t be ready by the season opener. Damon Huard, the No. 3 quarterback, has been nursing head trauma but will probably play some on Friday night.

Starting against the Rams will be Jonathan Quinn, a journeyman who was out of football and living in the Kansas City area when the Chiefs called him two weeks ago. Quinn played the rest of the game against the Seahawks after Green came out in the first quarter.

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“It’s crazy. I’ve never been involved with anything like this,” said Green. “You hear of one guy going down, or at the most, two. But to have three guys. Here it was a week ago and Quinn was on his couch. Now he’s starting this week. It’s a weird set of circumstances.”

The stent, a small device that widens the artery, will remain for the rest of his life, said Green. But since bleeding injuries are common in football, he will be taken off the blood thinner before each game.

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