Dolphins LB Porter Walking After Surgery

Tuesday, August 7th 2007, 2:50 pm

By: News On 6

DAVIE, Fla. (AP) _ New Miami Dolphins linebacker Joey Porter was up walking soon after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery Tuesday for the third time in two years. Teammates expect him to rejoin the lineup soon.

``He'll be back tomorrow,'' linebacker Channing Crowder joked after talking by phone with Porter. ``He walked right after surgery. He'll be fine. He'll probably get a couple of snaps in the preseason.''

Porter is expected to be out at least two weeks. The first of Miami's four exhibition games is Saturday against Jacksonville.

Dr. James Andrews performed the surgery in Birmingham, Ala. Porter has been out since Friday because of the injury, which began bothering him during the offseason.

``Joey has been fighting through this thing all of camp so far,'' defensive tackle Vonnie Holliday said. ``I think they wanted to go ahead and clear this up and get it over with. I don't think this will be a problem long term. I think it was just a cleanup job.''

Porter received a guaranteed $20 million in March to sign with Miami after spending his first eight NFL seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He has missed only six games in his career.

Tackle Anthony Alabi also might return soon. He limped off the field Monday with a left knee injury. Coach Cam Cameron said the injury was minor, and there was little swelling.

Porter, a three-time Pro Bowl linebacker, missed most of training camp and all four exhibition games in 2005 after left knee surgery _ a problem aggravated when he jumped to celebrate winning a training camp blocking competition.

He returned to play in all 16 regular-season games and four playoff games for the Super Bowl champion Steelers.

Porter had arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in May 2006. He went on to play in 14 games, missing two because of a hamstring injury.

The Steelers released Porter in a salary cap move last spring, and he signed a five-year, $32 million deal with Miami. His replacement at outside linebacker will be Donnie Spragan, who started nine games each of the past two years.