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Panthers running back Stephen Davis did not practice Wednesday because of a strained left quadriceps.
Davis, who ran for a career-best 1,444 yards this season, is questionable for Sunday's NFC championship game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
He wouldn't answer reporters' questions Wednesday.
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If Davis can't play Sunday, second-year back DeShaun Foster will start.
Davis was injured on a 64-yard run in the second quarter of the Panthers' win against St. Louis on Saturday. He left the game and did not return.
Foster replaced him and ran for a career-high 95 yards on 21 carries.
The city rolled out the green carpet for the Super Bowl on Wednesday. Tickets
An all-star team of groundskeepers from around the NFL began applying a pristine Bermuda grass surface over the battle-worn turf at Reliant Stadium, a building that's undergoing a transformation despite being just 1 1/2 years old.
``The people don't come to see us, they come to see the game,'' said George Toma, the 74-year-old Hall of Fame grounds guru who has overseen turf preparation at all 38 Super Bowls. ``It's been my job for 62 years to give the teams a safe playing field.''
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That field, in the form of several one-ton rolls that extend to 4 feet by 35
feet each, arrived Wednesday aboard a convoy of refrigerated 18-wheelers.
The grass has been in the ground in Arizona, an hour south of Phoenix, for more than a year before it was unearthed this week and transported to Houston.
The plush new surface should be in place by the end of the week, giving Toma, right-hand man Ed Mangan and the other groundskeepers two weeks to prim for the Feb. 1 game.
Toma is confident the poor light conditions inside the cavernous stadium won't hamper the field. ``I'm not concerned at all,'' he said. ``I have grown sod inside of maintenance shops.''
To make sure the Princess 17 Bermuda grass thrives in its final resting place, Toma has 1,000 pounds of rye grass and bluegrass seed pregerminating at the stadium and ready to overseed to make sure the surface is ready for the Patriots or Colts to face the Eagles or Panthers.
It will be a major change from the field the Houston Texans use. Their grass, set on a system of 8-foot square trays for easy assembly and disassembly, has thinned and browned toward the end of each of their first two systems.
The fault lies not with the local grounds crew, Toma said, but with the design of the retractable-roofed stadium that doesn't allow in enough light to promote consistent grass growth. During the season the trays are removed and laid out under the sunlight whenever possible.
Even if the trays had been performing perfectly, Toma said, the league routinely installs its own turf at Super Bowl venues with grass fields to ensure as much continuity as possible.
It's up to Toma and Mangan to make it fit for football.
The field isn't the only part of Reliant Park undergoing a makeover even though the $449 million stadium opened in August 2002. Road improvements, additional seats, added landscaping and construction of ground-floor press facilities have been going on since last year to round the building into Super Bowl condition.
One unique aspect of Reliant Stadium won't come into play: The roof, which the Texans can open or close depending on weather conditions, will remain closed regardless of conditions.