St. Louis — Kurt Warner returned to practice on Friday after missing most of the previous day with sore ribs and said he'll take an injection if necessary before Sunday's NFC championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
"I'd rather not if I didn't have to," Warner said. "But it's obviously something that can be pretty painful, especially with what I have to do.
"If it's the most advantageous thing for me to do and I know it's not going to affect anything, that I can't hurt it worse by numbing it up, then by all means."
The NFL's MVP warmed up without apparent difficulty and zipped his first pass of Friday's practice to Jeff Robinson. Warner didn't show any visible signs of trouble with throws or handoffs.
"He's a little tender still," coach Mike Martz said. "He threw the red-zone stuff, and he'll be fine Sunday. The issue with him is the pain. Each day, it gets better."
Warner said increased stretching helped him. Trainers also massaged the area.
"When I got it loosened up and stretched out, it felt a lot better," Warner said. "That's going to be the key over the next couple of days."
On game day, Warner always wears a flak jacket. He said the team would experiment with extra padding. He won't throw today, as has been the routine.
"I don't know if there was ever any worry in my mind that I'd be out there Sunday," Warner said. "You just kind of have to deal with a little bit of pain, and you can do whatever you want as long as you deal with it."
The job of keeping Warner healthy on Sunday belongs to the offensive line.
"We never like to have him get beat up or banged up," tight end Ernie Conwell. "We never like anybody getting a shot at him, and we understand we're a much better team with Kurt than without Kurt."
Warner was injured with about 81*2 minutes to go and the Rams ahead by four touchdowns in the fourth quarter of last weekend's 45-17 second-round NFC playoff victory over Green Bay when he was hit by Vonnie Holliday. Martz wasn't second-guessing himself for not taking Warner out of the game.
"If I felt like it was really necessary or if it was beneficial, I certainly would have done that," Martz said. "But I obviously don't feel that way."
Backup Jamie Martin took almost all of the snaps in practice Thursday. Martin threw only three passes in the regular season, but Martz said he would have confidence in him if Warner who passed for 4,830 yards, second-most in league history could not play.
"The dropoff doesn't exist," Martz said. "So I'm not going to worry about it."
Martin said getting all of the practice time on Thursday helped his confidence level.
"You can only learn so much standing back and watching," Martin said. "So to get in there and do it makes me feel real comfortable. I think I'm as ready as I can be."
The rib injury is the latest problem for Warner, who in recent weeks has overcome stomach flu and bruised vocal cords.
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