Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Hasselbeck will be right behind him.

Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren said Monday that both of his injured stars may play Sunday at San Francisco, pending tests in practice this week.

Doctors have cleared Alexander to fully practice Wednesday for the first time in eight weeks _ even though the broken bone in his left foot, which has sidelined him for six games, may not be fully healed. That had been the previous criterion for Alexander's return.

If Alexander comes through practices this week as pain free as he's been for the last three, idle weeks, the 2005 league rushing leader will play for the Seahawks (6-3) against the 49ers (4-5).

MRI results were due late Monday night. But Holmgren said that because Alexander has no pain, doctors are going to let him test the foot on the field Wednesday no matter what the pictures show.

``The diagnostics of the injury doesn't compute with what the player is saying,'' Holmgren said.

This doesn't compute, either: Without Alexander and Hasselbeck _ or Bobby Engram, the team's receiving leader last season _ the Seahawks (6-3) lead their division by two games. They are 3-3 without the 2005 league rushing leader, 3-2 without Engram and 2-1 without Hasselbeck, the maestro of Holmgren's intricate offence.

Chicago (8-1) is the only NFC team with a better record than Seattle.

``I am very proud of the football team in the last few weeks, when we have been kind of holding them together with Band-Aids _ particularly on offence,'' Holmgren said. ``The guys have stepped up and really given great efforts, I think.

``We dinked it around a little bit and haven't been as efficient as I would like, but we managed to scrape out a couple wins.''

As All-Pro left tackle Walter Jones said: ``We just chip away.

``We lost our MVP in Shaun, and we lost Hasselbeck. But we made progress. And we knew that we had to continue to keep working on it, and that's what we did each week.''

Hasselbeck has missed the last three games after Minnesota's E.J. Henderson rolled into his right leg following an incomplete pass. That sprained the medial collateral ligament in Hasselbeck's knee.

Monday, a players' off day, Hasselbeck was on the practice field running change-of-direction drills in cleats for the first time since the injury. Holmgren said Hasselbeck had ``some limitations _ but it's only Monday.''

``He has a chance to play this week,'' Holmgren said. ``I can't say for sure ... if he can't move (better by Friday), then I'm not going to stick him back there.

``When they are ready, they are going to play. It has nothing to do with where we are in the division, or whatever.''