Eagles fans held their collective breath as they watched quarterback Michael Vick walk off the field in the second quarter of Thursday night's preseason game versus the Pittsburgh Steelers shaking his hand in pain.

Now, they can exhale.

"The thumb's good," Vick said. "I should be able to practice today. There's just a little soreness, but it's something I know I can work through."

Head coach Andy Reid confirmed after Saturday morning's walk thru that Vick will practice in the afternoon. In fact, Vick's injury isn't the biggest among his own position group. Mike Kafka fractured his non-throwing hand. The injury will take two to three weeks to heal, per Reid. Kafka will do drills where he doesn't have to take a snap, 7-on-7s for example. However, Nick Foles will be the No. 2 quarterback in live drills.

"He's progressing. He did some nice things," Reid said. "I mentioned about keeping your eyes down the field on the one long ball where he had to move and then make the throw, that just came very natural to him. He felt the pressure; he scooted to the right and kept his eyes down the field. He knew he had the receiver and gave him a good catchable ball. Damaris (Johnson) did a good job of getting open too. That was a heck of a route."

Reid said that Kafka's foot was stepped on, but he would not specify on which play it happened.

Seeing Vick at the walk thru was a positive sign right off the bat after some nervous moments Thursday. Trying to keep a drive alive on third down, Vick dropped back in the pocket for a pass play. He stepped up to make his throw downfield, but he hit his hand on the back of center Jason Kelce's helmet.

Vick quickly sat down on the bench, was examined by team doctors and shortly afterwards was given an X-ray during halftime. Luckily, the X-ray came back negative.

So much has been talked about of Vick needing to slide to avoid injuries, but this incident was, in his words, "a freak injury."

"I was in the pocket," Vick said. "I was just attempting to make a throw.

"You never want to be hurt, especially the first preseason game. You don't want to walk off the field and not finish the drive the way you want to. Obviously it was a third-down conversion that we were trying to get. It's just a freak injury, but it's nothing major. I had the same type of injury the last game of the season against the Redskins and played with it, so I know how to deal with it."

Vick was holding and massaging a Silly Putty-like thing in his injured left hand as he left the practice facility at Lehigh Saturday morning.

"It's just for exercise to try to work the swelling out of (the thumb)," Vick said.

Vick has not attempted to throw a football with full velocity yet, but he did take snaps this morning.

He says he will "absolutely" be ready for the second preseason game on August 20 in New England.

"This injury is really in the way right now," Vick said sarcastically. "It's petty."

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