Schaub out with significant foot injury

Houston quarterback Matt Schaub is out indefinitely with a “significant” right foot injury and will miss at least the Texans’ next game in two weeks.

Coach Gary Kubiak said Monday that Schaub was injured on a quarterback sneak coming out of the end zone late in the second quarter of Houston’s 37-9 win over Tampa Bay on Sunday. Schaub stayed in the game, but threw only three passes.

Kubiak said the team was bringing in a specialist from Indianapolis to evaluate Schaub, and the quarterback would fly to Charlotte, N.C., later this week to undergo further examination.

“He’s got a significant foot injury, he’s going to miss some time,” Kubiak said. “But we’re going to do everything we can to get it evaluated correctly and see if can get him back on the football field.

“It’s disappointing,” Kubiak said, “but we’ll go to work and try to do the right thing by Matt.”

The Texans (7-3) have won four in a row and share the AFC’s best record with Pittsburgh heading into their bye week. Kubiak said sixth-year veteran Matt Leinart will start at Jacksonville on Nov. 27.

Leinart, the 2004 Heisman Trophy winner for Southern Cal, re-signed with the Texans in the offseason after not taking a snap in 2010. He turned down other offers to return to Houston because he was comfortable with Kubiak and his offensive system.

“That’s why he’s here, that’s why he came back,” Kubiak said. “He liked this opportunity, he likes this team, he likes what we do offensively. You never know how an opportunity is going to occur, but here we go. It’s a big one for him, in his career.”

Leinart guided Southern Cal to back-to-back national championship games after the 2004 and ‘05 seasons, and went 37-2 as a starter in college.

He was drafted 10th overall by Arizona in 2006 and appeared in 12 games as a rookie under coach Dennis Green, throwing 11 touchdowns and 12 interceptions. He broke his collarbone in the fifth game of the next season, Kurt Warner took over and Leinart was mostly a spectator over the next 2 1 / 2 seasons.

Kubiak has been increasing Leinart’s repetitions in practice, and he’s confident Leinart is ready.

“He’s played in big football games in this league, he’s played in big football games in college,” Kubiak said. “Matt’s been around it. The key is the whole team rallying around him, and playing well as a team. Matt doesn’t have to go win a game, the team has to go win a game. We’ll rally around him and get him ready to go.”

Schaub, acquired in a trade with Atlanta in March 2007, has started every game for Houston since the start of the 2009 season. Kubiak would not say if Schaub would miss the rest of this year.

“There’s a lot of things reported,” Kubiak said. “He’s going to be in a boot throughout this week, and then the evaluation process will continue.”

Schaub joins the growing list of Houston stars sidelined with injuries this season.

Sacks leader Mario Williams was lost for the season with a torn chest muscle in a loss to Oakland on Oct. 9, and star receiver Andre Johnson has missed six games with a right hamstring injury.

Running back Arian Foster missed two of the first three games with a strained left hamstring, and starting safety Danieal Manning has missed three games after breaking his left fibula.

Kubiak said he hopes Johnson will be ready for the Jacksonville game.

“Our expectation is that Andre is a full participant next Wednesday, or as we start our week next week,” Kubiak said. “But let’s be honest. Until he steps on the field and practices a couple days, we probably better hold off. But it sure looks like that’s where we’re headed.”