HOUSTON (REUTERS) — Five-time Pro Bowl offensive tackle Tony Boselli will miss the rest of the season for the expansion Houston Texans after failing to fully recover from three shoulder surgeries in the past year.

“Right now, it’s just not in the cards,” Texans general manager Charley Casserly said Tuesday.

Boselli was the Texans’ first pick in the expansion draft and was expected to be a cornerstone at left tackle to protect quarterback David Carr, the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. But three shoulder surgeries since last October have kept Boselli sidelined.

Boselli will go on the injured reserve list.

“We were never going to compromise him to just get him on the field,” Casserly said. “We were not going to put him in the position to get injured again.”

Casserly said the time it takes a player to heal is unpredictable.

“You can’t play God,” he said. “This is a longer than one-season rehab to come back and play.”

Boselli, 30, was claimed by the Texans after being left unprotected by Jacksonville. He has worked with the team since the start of preseason but didn’t begin limited-contact drills until Sept. 3, wearing a brace to protect his left shoulder.

Boselli and Houston officials never offered a date for the player’s return. There had been speculation he would play in the regular-season opener Sept. 8 against the Dallas Cowboys, but Boselli didn’t start working out in pads until five days before that game and was wearing a protective brace.

He was listed as doubtful for each of the Texans’ first five games this season.

The team had Boselli practice in order to allow him to get readjusted to the field and playing again. But the team doctors soon realized Boselli was “not making the strength gains at the rate we made them before we put him back on the field,” he said.