Priest won’t return in ’06

? Running back Priest Holmes will not return to the Kansas City Chiefs this season.

However, Chiefs general manager Carl Peterson said Tuesday that recent medical tests on Holmes have been encouraging, and Holmes hopes to return for the 2007 season. Tuesday was the last day the Chiefs could have activated Holmes.

“He does not, at this time, plan to give up football,” Peterson said. “We’re looking at another evaluation in January or February of ’07.”

The three-time Pro Bowler, who turned 33 last month, has not played since Oct. 30, 2005, when he was injured on a hit by Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman in a game at San Diego. The hit left him with head and neck trauma, diagnosed by three spinal specialists.

He missed the last nine games of the season after skipping the last eight games of the 2004 season with a knee injury. He has appeared in all 16 games in a season only four times since breaking into the NFL in 1997.

Peterson said Holmes, who is under contract through 2009, told him on Friday that he wanted to remain on the physically unable to perform list through this season.

Peterson declined to say whether Holmes would have been able to return had he gotten the same evaluations earlier in the season rather than within the past week.