The injury woes continue for Rams defensive tackle Adam Carriker. Thursday night against Kansas City, in his first preseason game of the summer, Carriker suffered a shoulder injury.

League sources told the Post-Dispatch on Friday afternoon that Carriker will need surgery on the shoulder, and that the injury could be season ending.

“It is a significant shoulder injury,” coach Steve Spagnuolo said Friday.

Spagnuolo ddn’t confirm that Carriker needed surgery, but did indicate that the injury is serious enough that the team is considering whether to place him on the injured reserve list.

“We’re still in the process of determining which way to go, how long it’s going to be, and navigate through that,” Spagnuolo said. “So we won’t really have a final decision on Adam until tomorrow.”

The Rams must reach the mandatory 53-man roster limit Saturday afternoon. In a clarification, Spagnuolo said Friday that the injury was to Carriker’s left shoulder, not the right shoulder which underwent surgery for a torn labrum at the conclusion of the 2007 season. The recovery and rehab from that injury slowed him at the start of last season.

Carriker had missed the first three preseason games this year because of an ankle injury suffered in an August 7 scrimmage at Lindenwood Univeristy, Gary Gibson has been starting in Carriker’s place.