There were a handful of occasions on Monday night in which Chicago Bears guard Rex Tucker and Green Bay defensive end Joe Johnson collided on the football field. Unfortunately for the veteran players, their longest meeting of the night came in the X-ray room, both with season-ending injuries.

	Tucker

	Johnson

Although the Bears have yet to make it official, sources confirmed Tuesday that Tucker will miss the balance of the year with a dislocated left ankle. The injury came in the third quarter when Packers linebacker Nate Wayne rolled up on Tucker's ankle.

Also, Chicago's David Terrell has a broken right foot. Terrell played his last season at Michigan with a stress fracture in his right foot, but never missed a game or practice. He was a second-team All-American that year, catching 67 passes for a Michigan-record 1,130 yards and 14 touchdowns.

Sensing the severity of Tucker's injury, players from both teams quickly signaled for trainers and doctors, as Tucker's ankle was twisted grotesquely.

"It was not pretty out there," Bears quarterback Jim Miller acknowledged. "It was pretty obvious this was a bad one. It hurts to lose a player and leader like Rex has been."

Johnson ruptured his left triceps, and injury that will require surgery, and he will be placed on injured reserve this week. The injury means the Packers are now without both starting defensive ends, since Vonnie Holliday remains sidelined by a pectoral muscle injury.

Acquired from the New Orleans Saints this summer as an unrestricted free agent, and easily Green Bay's highest-profile offseason addition, Johnson called the injury a "freak' occurrence. Coach Mike Sherman allowed that the team is scrambling now on the defensive line, with eight healthy players. The Packers may be forced to sign a free agent this week.

Green Bay paid Johnson a $6.5 million signing bonus in March as part of a six-year, $33 million contract to lure the standout veteran away from New Orleans, where he had played the first eight years of his career. Johnson had not lived up to his billing as one of the NFL's premier two-day ends early in the season, but he was beginning to get more comfortable in the Green Bay scheme, and starting to make more plays.

"It's part of the game," Johnson said of the injury. "But it's a crummy part."

Tucker, 25, was a key component on a solid Bears offensive line unit. The fourth-year veteran was a Pro Bowl alternate in 2001, his first full season as a starter, and Chicago management rewarded the former Texas A&M star in August with a six-year contract extension.

Second-year veteran Mike Gandy, a third-round draft choice in 2001 who did not appear in a single game as a rookie, is expected to replace Tucker in the Bears lineup. Chicago already is playing with a left tackle, second-year veteran Bernard Robertson, who had never played in a regular-season game before this year. There is much speculation, based on his performance in the Monday night contest, that Robertson will be replaced in the lineup by first-round selection Marc Colombo.

Len Pasquarelli is a senior writer for ESPN.com. Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.