Justin Tuck sounds as if he’s preparing to sit this one out.

Tuck has played through pain and illness plenty of times in his Giants career and he hasn’t given up hope of playing in Sunday’s game against the Buccaneers but it also doesn’t appear as if he’s going to through caution to the wind and risk his long-term health to make this game.

“The main thing we’re talking about right now is this season is a marathon, it s not a sprint,” Tuck said. “Obviously I want to be out there now. I’ve played sick but that was to clinch playoffs. Every game’s important, don’t get me wrong, we just got to be smart of it. We’ve got to make sure an act of bravery doesn’t cost us a year.”

Tuck has an apparent injury to the labrum in his left shoulder, sustained when left tackle Flozell Adams leg-whipped him and then tripped him in last Sunday night’s 33-31 victory over the Cowboys. Adams today was fined $12,500 for the foul and the damage he did will likely cause Tuck to miss this next game.

Tuck will be fitted for a protective harness, which would limit the movement in the shoulder. He wore a harness on the same shoulder as a sophomore and junior at Notre Dame and while wearing the harness as a junior, Tuck had the best season of his college career.

“I played with it in college and did pretty well,” Tuck said. “I’m going to look at the harness as a good luck charm.”

Tuck immediately after the game called Adam’s tactics “bush league” and today he said “It makes me hate the Cowboys a little bit more.”

As for Adams retort that Tuck should have simply kept on his feet to prevent the injury, Tuck said “Normally people go to the Pro Bowl for blocking people, not tripping people. So maybe he should have kept his feet on the ground.”

One additional injury: WR Mario Manningham (shoulder) was limited in practice.