Hester's availability for Bucs uncertain

Devin Hester didn't practice Thursday, but he still hopes to play Sunday, although his chances appear to be slim.

Special teams coordinator Dave Toub said he's preparing to face the Bucs Sunday without his Pro Bowl return specialist, who hasn't practiced all week because of torn rib cartilage that has made breathing difficult and some movements painful.

"Anytime you've got a guy banged up, you're always going to prepare for the worst and hope for the best," Toub said.

Hester has been treating the injury with rest, ice, anti-inflammatory medicine and electric stimulation. He said he'd like to play Sunday, but it might be wiser to take a game off and allow the injury to completely heal.

"I'm feeling a lot better, so I'm hoping by the end of the week I will have no pain," Hester said. "(But) if I go out there and it's not healed all the way, then I could damage it even more. I'm trying to get as much treatment as I can, and hopefully I'll be ready."

Nate Vasher is listed as the backup punt returner, and he took over last week after Hester was hurt. But rookie wide receiver Earl Bennett had a 75-yard punt-return TD in the preseason, and he was fielding simulated punts from the JUGS machine after practice, joined by Vasher, Rashied Davis and Garrett Wolfe.

Toub didn't rule out using Hester part time or as a decoy to keep the Bucs guessing.

"It never hurts to have him lined up in there no matter what," Toub said. "Is he going to return it? Is he going to fair catch? Is he going to let it drop? They don't know, so those are all things that we're thinking about, and that's why it's a game-time decision."

Hester said the injury did not originally occur on the last kickoff he returned before leaving last week's game in the third quarter, but it was aggravated on that play.

"Earlier in the game, I landed on it kind of funny on a tackle and it knocked the wind out of me a little bit, but I didn't show (it)," Hester said. "I got up and played it off. Later on in the game, I tried to make a move on the sideline to avoid a tackle, and it popped."

Getting over it: Tight end Greg Olsen says there's no mystery to solving his fumbling problem of last week.

"Just focus more on tucking it away," he said. "Sometimes I think you take it for granted. My whole career, I think I had maybe fumbled one time my freshman year of college and didn't lose it. Obviously, it's not something I've had a history with in the past, so just get back to doing what you've done your whole life. There's nothing more to it than that."

Offensive coordinator Ron Turner spoke with Olsen about his 2 lost fumbles shortly after the Bears' plane landed Sunday night.

"I just said, 'Hey, you're a heck of a player,'" Turner told Olsen. "'You're a great player, you've made a lot of great plays for us, you're going to make a lot of great plays for us, and we're going to come to you. You made a couple of mistakes.'"

"I said, 'I made some mistakes in that game, too,'" Turner said. "'It wasn't one play that lost the game; it wasn't two plays. It was several plays, several opportunities that we had and several things that we did. "You've just got to move on.'"