San Diego Chargers tight end Antonio Gates is listed as doubtful for this Thursday night's game against the San Francisco 49ers. Gates has been battling with a foot injury and has not practiced much this week. Gates did not play last week and given the short week of practices, there hasn't been much time for him to rehab his torn plantar fascia in his right foot. He was injured on October 31 in the Chargers' win over the Tennessee Titans. He then missed two games but played the next two. In those two games he played, it was clear that he was injured pretty badly. Gates has 50 receptions for 782 yards and 10 touchdowns this season, even while missing three games.

Fantasy Analysis:

Considering how desperately the Chargers need to win as many games as possible to have a shot at the playoffs, Gates injury has to be pretty serious. The injury (torn plantar fascia) involves the muscle/ligaments that run along the arch of your foot and run up the heel to the Achilles' tendon. Considering that tight ends live and die by making small cuts one way or another to find daylight in soft coverages, Gates would be planting and cutting on his injured foot at least 20 and as many as 40 times per game. That kind of abuse is obviously too much. His backup, Randy McMichael, isn't worth starting at this point in the season. There is simply too much riding on these games to start a backup who hasn't accomplished much this year.