KIRKLAND, Wash. — The MVP is playing.

Shaun Alexander will be in the backfield for Seattle when the Seahawks take on the Carolina Panthers in Sunday's NFC championship game.

"Shaun's full go," coach Mike Holmgren said Wednesday. "He passed some tests we gave him yesterday. He participated in our walkthrough this morning. He's going to be fine."

Four days after he sustained a concussion against the Washington Redskins, Alexander was back on the practice field Wednesday. Holmgren said the star running back will start against Carolina. So will right tackle Sean Locklear, who spent two days in jail this week and was released after being charged with assault.

In the full afternoon non-contact practice, Alexander split first-team practice time with backup Maurice Morris, who rushed 18 times for 49 yards in place of Alexander on Saturday. But Alexander expects to get nearly all the first-team repetitions Thursday.

Alexander was injured last Saturday in the first quarter of Seattle's win over Washington and didn't return. He later said he was initially knocked unconscious, then was dazed for about 20 minutes as he sat on the bench.

Alexander, who rushed for a team-record 1,880 yards in the regular season, jokingly said he learned something about himself during a four-day battery of doctors' tests.

"Oh yeah. I took all the tests and realized the guy knocked some sense into me," Alexander said of Redskins linebacker LaVar Arrington, who appeared to hit the back of Alexander's helmet during a 1-yard loss Saturday. "I am actually smarter than I was before."

He also apparently has his sense of perspective back.

The potential free agent said on a conference call with Carolina reporters Wednesday he has an appreciation for the situation former Seahawks teammate Ken Lucas went through this past year.

When asked if he was sad to see Lucas leave Seattle, Alexander said: "I definitely was. But then, at the same time, who knows if I am going to be here or not?"

"I told him you never know, I might be out there with you. Whenever you lose a teammate it's rough. When you lose a friend it's worse," Alexander added.

Alexander has repeatedly expressed his desire this season to "win three or four Super Bowls for Seattle." But he said last month that talks with the Seahawks on a contract extension were put off until after the postseason.

Meanwhile, Holmgren told Locklear he will start Sunday.

Locklear was in a Seattle courtroom Tuesday, where he pleaded not guilty to an assault charge. He's accused in a police report of grabbing his live-in girlfriend around the neck outside a Seattle nightspot early Sunday morning and leaving red marks on her neck and chest.

He spent two days in the King County Jail and is scheduled for a Feb. 13 hearing.

"As he explained to me exactly what happened, I believe I understand what happened. At that point, I have made the decision that he will play in the football game," Holmgren said.

Locklear, 24, apologized to Seattle and his teammates.

"I want to start off today by apologizing to the community and everybody," the first-year starter said. "I'm not proud of the things I've done."

Locklear said Holmgren repeatedly talks to the team about ensuring personal affairs don't become news. Those warnings became even more frequent in October, after starting safety Ken Hamlin was lost for the season with a fractured skull from a street fight outside a bar.

"He talks about it all the time," Locklear said. "That's his job. He's supposed to talk about it.

"But we, as grown men, should know what we are supposed to do, the rights and wrongs."