Walker done for the year

The Raiders will be without wide receiver Javon Walker for the rest of the year. Walker injured his ankle in last week’s lost to Carolina and told reporters he will have to undergo season-ending surgery.

Walker has not practiced this week and was taken for tests on his left ankle Thursday. Those tests revealed damage significant enough to require surgery, though Walker didn’t reveal the exact nature of his injury.

“I’m done for the season,” said Walker, who walked into Oakland’s locker room using a pair of crutches while wearing a protective high boot on his left foot. “They’ve got to put some screws in.”

The Raiders made no official announcement and interim coach Tom Cable apparently was unaware of Walker’s status.

According to NFL Network’s Adam Schefter, Walker will have surgery Friday to repair a bone in his foot that is separated at the ankle.

The injury brings to question whether the Raiders will sever ties with the veteran wide receiver. Walker’s name was reportedly one of those on a list of players owner Al Davis was reportedly considering releasing in order to free up cap space and save money so the team could address deficiencies on its offensive and defensive lines.

Walker, who signed a $55 million, six-year deal that included an $11 million signing bonus, has just 15 catches this season and has failed to make the type of impact Oakland officials hoped he would.

Counting in his base salary of $1 million, Walker was paid $12 million this season for eight games. DeAngelo Hall, who was cut by the Raiders last week, was paid $8 million for eight games.

Not all the news was bad.

Quarterback JaMarcus Russell handled most of the reps in practice with the offense and should be back under center for Sunday’s game in Miami. Running back Darren McFadden is also scheduled to play after sitting out the past three weeks with turf toe injuries.

“I’m ready to go,” McFadden said. “I’ve been feeling real nice the last two days of practice, just being able to go out there and run and not have pain. At first just walking on it was hard on me but then as that went away it was trying to make the burst and the cuts.”

Other news and notes from Thursday:

· Two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Derrick Burgess did not practice but the Raiders said they expected that after he worked out Wednesday for the first time in more than a month. Burgess will try to practice Friday and the team isn’t ruling him out against Miami yet, though it seems more likely they’ll target the Nov. 23 game at Denver for his return.

“Because he’s been out a while obviously there’s some fatigue,” Cable said. “(We) really worked him yesterday extremely hard but no damage, nothing worse like soreness or anything like that but some fatigue. He’s been out for six weeks now so we look like we’ll be pretty close and ready to go, if not this week then next week for sure.”

With Burgess out the Raiders have gotten a longer-than-expected look at veteran defensive end Kalimba Edwards and rookie Trevor Scott.

“In a lot of ways it has been and in some ways it’s been a negative too because we’ve been attacked a bit there,” Cable said. “But we’ve also had a lot of growth at that spot, particularly with Trevor. Kalimba’s been pretty steady for what he is and he’s put some decent pressure on the quarterback and all that but it has allowed us to develop Trevor, no question.”

· Johnnie Lee Higgins will continue to handle the punt return chores but the Raiders are undecided who will return kickoffs against the Dolphins. Newly signed Justin Miller appears to be the leading candidate but Kiffin said he has not yet determined what way he’ll go.

· Backup quarterback Andrew Walter was limited in practice due to the high ankle sprain he suffered in the second half of Sunday’s loss to Carolina.

· Strong safety Gibril Wilson was also limited in practice as a result of a sore lower back.

· Center John Wade has had no problem transitioning from backup to starter but that’s no surprise. Wade was a long-time starter with Tampa Bay and was signed by Oakland because of his experience. Although he failed to beat out Jake Grove for the starting job, Grove’s calf injury opened the door for Wade to get on the field for only the second time this season.

“A guy’s played that long then he’s been trained in the system since he got here, so it’s been nice,” Cable said. “We’ve had no snap issues. We haven’t missed anything in terms of calling our protection and all that. That’s been a real good deal for us. We’re very lucky to have that. Very fortunate and he’s done a nice job. He’s prepared and ready to go.”

· The Raiders are last in the league in third-down conversion percentage and Cable knows why.

“Protection, you bet, protection,” Cable said. “Protection has been the biggest issue. I also see that we have had a number of penalties on third down that has created from third-and-medium to third-and-longs. Those two things, starting with protection first, are our biggest problem that we have to deal with.”

Heading into Sunday’s game against the Dolphins the Raiders have converted only 28 of 125 third-down opportunities, a paltry 22.4 percent success rate.