Both Denver Broncos’ safety Darian Stewart and and Carolina Panthers’ linebacker Thomas Davis did not participate in their teams’ practices this past week. Stewart suffers from a sprained MCL in his right knee while Davis has a broken right forearm. Both injuries occurred in NFL conference championship games.

According to ESPN’s Jeff Legwold both safeties T.J. Ward and Darian Stewart are expected to play in the Super Bowl on February 7. Ward also did not participate in the past week’s practices. “I think T.J.’s probably ahead of [Stewart] right now,” said Broncos head coach Gary Kubiak. “We’ll…put them back to work next week.” Ward has an injured left ankle.

Stewart’s injury is among the rising tide of NFL players with MCL injuries:

Knee MCL tears in @NFL jump 25% from recent years

170 in 2015

139 in 2014

136 in 2013

132 in 2012. — David J. Chao, MD (@ProFootballDoc) January 30, 2016

David J. Chao, MD is a board-certified orthopaedic surgeon with a subspecialty certification in sports medicine. He has maintained a San Diego orthopaedic practice since 1995. He is a former team physician for the San Diego Chargers. Since 2013 he has tweeted about NFL injuries.

The NFL also reported that concussions rose 58 percent during the 2015 regular season.

While Stewart can take pain medicine prior to the Super Bowl game, the question is how well his injured knee can handle lateral moves.

Darian Stewart should do well.

A lot of injuries “heal” in the two weeks before a Super Bowlhttps://t.co/SEJEJTXZjo https://t.co/b4009HtWEm — David J. Chao, MD (@ProFootballDoc) January 31, 2016

Davis told reporters on Thursday, January 28, that he was recovering well after surgery to put a plate and 11 or 12 screws in his broken right forearm.

Minimum is a plate with 6 screws. Obviously @ThomasDavisSDTM surgery was more involved. Still gonna play #SB50. https://t.co/uudxDq7Kjg — David J. Chao, MD (@ProFootballDoc) January 29, 2016

Davis said, “I fully expect to play.”