COLLEGE FOOTBALL / DAILY REPORT : UCLA : Shah’s Knee Is Source of Concern

Today will be an important day for UCLA Coach Terry Donahue, who will find out if Sharmon Shah’s right knee swells after a spirited workout Friday.

If it swells, Donahue said, arthroscopic surgery is indicated because of a cartilage problem.

“There’ll be no ‘scope,” said Shah, the Bruins’ No. 1 tailback who has been plagued with knee problems that have required two such operations in a year. “I’ll be all right. I’m not worried about it.”

He may be the only one. “Even if it doesn’t swell, it doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods,” said Donahue. “We really won’t know until he has a hard practice, with hard cuts.”

That’s OK, too, Shah said.

“The problem was two-a-day drills, and I went too hard on it,” he said. “I’ve got to learn that when everybody else goes half-speed, there’s no sense in my running plays 60 yards down the field. I’ve got to learn my body, to understand when it’s telling me to slow down.”

The message came two days ago when Shah was running plays, wearing the red jersey signifying injury. On a sweep, he slowed and began limping.

“That was my body telling me, ‘You’d better slow yourself down, because you’re not ready for that,’ ” Shah said.

Donahue agreed that it might be necessary to modify Shah’s practice regimen to keep him available to play games.

“Plus, we might have to be careful about how much he plays,” Donahue said. “That’s why we need to have Daron Washington and Shaun Williams and some of these other kids ready, because Sharmon might not be able to do what we’d like to have done, which is be in there carrying the ball 30 times a game.”

Shah probably will not work in today’s 5 p.m. scrimmage and practice at the Rose Bowl.

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Add quarterback Wayne Cook to the ailing list. He has a sore arm, which limited his work in Friday’s practice. It’s an annual thing with Cook, annoying because of the timing, with a week until the season-opener against Tennessee.

“He probably won’t go Saturday, either,” Donahue said. “I think with Saturday and Sunday to rest, it will be OK. But he needs to get in some work.”