CFL.ca Staff

EDMONTON -- After returning to Edmonton on Wednesday following a brief stint south of the border, Eskimos running back Jerome Messam finally joined his team back on the practice field.

However, don't expect last season's Most Outstanding Canadian to be in an Eskimos uniform for Monday's Labour Day battle with the Calgary Stampeders.

Messam returns to Edmonton with a backfield that already carries Hugh Charles, the recently-acquired Cory Boyd and Calvin McCarty on its roster.

Because of that, Eskimos Head Coach Kavis Reed said Messam will have to work his way back on to the roster.

"We have every intention of giving him the opportunity to work his way back into the fold, but right now we're going to focus on Hugh Charles and Cory Boyd as our guys,'' he said. "We have to make certain, first, that his conditioning is back.

"Although he's been in their training camp, he really hasn't had significant reps or work to get his cardio back into football shape.The secondary part is he hasn't played football for almost a calendar year so there's a lot of things we need to look at.''

Messam suffered a torn meniscus cartilage in his knee in last year's West Division Semi-Final and said he had an additional surgery while in Miami.

"When I got there I was coming off the injury,'' he said after assuming his spot in the Eskimos dressing room. "I was practicing so quick and going to hard I had to have another surgery while I was down there and didn't really get to do too much where they could evaluate me.''

Messam said his knee is fine now and he's ready to resume his CFL career.

"It was a gruelling, long off-season there. I went through training like I never did before so I feel I'm in the best shape of my life. But as far as getting back into the swing of things, being comfortable with the offence, my protection responsibilities and all that stuff, if not this week it'll definitely be next week.''

As for Charles and Boyd, who currently rank third and fourth respectively in rushing yards, they believe that Messam's arrival creates a very competitive backfield.

"This is a very good dilemma,'' said Reed. "We went from not having anyone behind Hugh Charles to moving Calvin McCarty to fullback . . . to now having three very viable options.''

Messam, Charles, Boyd and Reed all agreed Messam's return creates a highly competitive situation, but a healthy one.

"And that's good,'' said Reed. "As long as it's healthy competition, competitiveness is very good.

"Based on the character of these individuals and the fact I'm going to be very up front and forthright with them, let them all know this organization is relying on them to provide quality depth at that position and our offence is morphing more into a run offence so we want to make certain we're fair to everyone and they have to be pros about the way things are being handled.''

Charles, who leads the team with 504 rushing yards, said Messam's return doesn't change his own status or put added pressure on the players.

"It is going to put a lot of pressure on Kavis and (offensive coordinator) Marcus (Crandell) to see where everyone's going to fit,'' he said. "What we have going now, it's a great combination but I feel like there's more pressure on the coaches then there is on the players.

"It'll be interesting to see how that plays out.''