Lovie Smith tries to calm fans’ fears over Lavonte David’s ankle injury.

Bucs fans have every right to chew their fingernails at the news that stud linebacker Lavonte David did not practice Thursday.

David injured an ankle in practice Wednesday and has been limited since.

Joe doesn’t know whether Bucs coach Lovie Smith is displaying a sense of false bravado or he knows David may indeed be available for Sunday’s game against the sad Saints, but Lovie was trying to put Bucs fans at ease yesterday.

“I would be concerned if my favorite players aren’t practicing,” Lovie said of a potential fan freakout over David. “If [fans] have been here long enough they know I’m going to wait until Sunday to kind of see who plays.

“If a guy is practicing on a limited basis I’m still pretty pumped up about it. Unless someone has been ruled out – which no one has been – if I’m a fan I’m pretty excited about this Sunday and can’t wait to get there.”

Of course, if David is held out of practice today, that’s pretty damning because rarely does Lovie start a player who cannot go in a Friday practice. And frankly, being limited at practice means squat. How long was Austin Seferian-Jenkins practicing under the “limited” label and he couldn’t take the field?

Just last week, Gerald McCoy was limited in practice and he was in street clothes for the game last Sunday.

We won’t know David’s status until 11:30 a.m. Sunday, when the NFL requires all teams playing in a 1 p.m. kickoff to release their active roster.

If David cannot go, that means the Bucs will be without their two top tacklers, both linebackers, Kwon Alexander and David, who are both rank among the NFL’s top-10 in tackles.