Raiders' Fargas to avoid surgery but...

The good news is that Justin Fargas won’t have to have surgery on after injuring the medial collateral ligament in his right knee during Sunday’s loss to Indianapolis.

The bad news is that Fargas, who went over the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his career, is all but certain to sit out the Raiders’ final two games this season as a result of the injury.

Fargas, who rushed for 89 yards and a touchdown against the Colts, was hurt a few plays before his touchdown run in the fourth quarter helped give Oakland a 14-13 lead. He stayed in the game and plowed into the end zone from two yards out but left and did not return. Raiders coach Lane Kiffin originally thought Fargas hurt his anterior cruciate ligament but Fargas said team trainers told him the injury was to his MCL. An MRI test confirmed the diagnosis.

“It is an MCL and most likely … he won’t play this week and most likely will not play the rest of the year,” Kiffin said Monday.

If he is finished for the season, Fargas will end 2007 with 1,009 yards and lead the Raiders in rushing two straight years despite beginning each year as a back-up. He didn’t take over for LaMont Jordan this season until Oakland’ s eighth game and took off from there. Even though he’s started just seven games, Fargas currently ranks 11th overall in the NFL in rushing.

Without him the Raiders will turn Jordan or Dominic Rhodes. Jordan was inactive for Sunday’s game against the Colts while Rhodes rushed for 41 yards on seven carries, his most extensive work on offense in nearly two months.

“We’ll let them battle it out this week and we’ll go from there,” Kiffin said. “We’ll figure out how we’ll divide playing time as well.”