Sore hip will keep Seahawks’ Harvin out Monday

Percy Harvin’s surgically repaired hip hasn’t responded well enough to make him a likely participant in the Seahawks game against New Orleans at the Clink. Listed as doubtful on the Saturday injury report, coach Pete Carroll all but ruled him out of the Seahawks’ biggest game of the season.

“He just hasn’t gotten rid of the soreness from the game,” he said, referring to Harvin’s seasonal debut Nov. 17 against Minnesota. “We thought that it would (be a) go with a week break, but it just lasted a little longer than we thought. If anything at all is not right, we’re not going with him. We’re going to make sure he’s 100 percent before we go.

“There’s a lot of stuff he can do right now. He can go out and run around, but he’s just not quite perfect for it, so we’re going to wait it out.”

Harvin’s absence is a bit of a setback against a team with the NFC’s second-best record (9-2) behind the Seahawks’ 10-1. Harvin was active for 16 plays in the 41-20 victory over the Vikings, including one catch and a 58-yard kickoff return. But the consequences of the Aug. 1 surgery linger.

“I thought that, from day-to-day, we’d have a chance to get him back,” Carroll said. “We kept him in rehabilitating throughout the week because his hip was just sore coming out of the game. So he’s still . . . we’ll just have to wait. We’ll go all the way out to Monday with this to see what happens. But unfortunately, he didn’t make it back like we thought he would. So it’s more important for us to get him back for the longer haul.”

Carroll grew a little testy when asked if the soreness was a long-term concern.

“It is for this weekend, for this game because we have to list him as doubtful,” he said. “But we’ll see, and we have to go day-to-day. That’s the facts. I’ve told you that. That’s the only way we can go right now and we don’t see any big issue, structurally. There’s nothing. We’ve looked at everything. So it’s just him getting back and making sure that he’s bounced in that area, so that he can handle the work load.”

On another personnel matter, Carroll said CB Perrish Cox, a free agent cut Wednesday after being signed Tuesday, was a result of CB Brandon Browner’s appeal of his drug suspension that prevented the Seahawks from filling his roster spot with a replacement.

“You kept asking me about the roster, and I couldn’t tell you about how we were going to do that,” Carroll said. “We didn’t know what we would do with Brandon Browner, really, at the time. We’re still waiting to figure out what his status is going to be. That really is what happened.”

Carroll said he expects an NFL arbitrator to rule on Browner’s appeal by the middle of next week at at the latest. Browner reportedly is claiming that he was undeserving of a level-three punishment in the NFL’s drug policy — a one-year suspension. He claims that a second violation occurred while he was playing in the Canadian Football League and was not subject to the NFL rules at the time.

A level-two suspension is four games, which is what was handed down to teammate Walter Thurmond for the same type of violation. Regardless, Browner is out of Monday’s game with a pulled groin muscle.

Regarding the impact to the team of the controversy around Thurmond and Browner, Carroll was predictably dismissive.

“When somebody slips, you go through a range of emotions, but what really came out was compassion,” he said.  “Guys really felt bad that our guys weren’t able to hang with us. So when you get down to it, that we were concerned for them because they don’t get to enjoy what they’ve been working at, and working to be a part of.

“As far as the football is concerned, we’ve had guys all year long that have had injuries . . .  and our players step up and answer the call. So that’s exactly how we look at it. It’s not something that we drag with us at all. We feel bad for the guys that they’re not with us, but then the other side of it is, it’s football.”