by By Brian Allee-Walsh, Staff writer , Times-Picayune

Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis and Coach Sean Payton confirmed Morgan had informed them via phone messages of his plans to call it quits after seven NFL seasons, though neither had spoken to him as of 6 p.m. Monday. Morgan's decision is somewhat puzzling since he had gone through the team's offseason program, first four organized team activities and the first minicamp practice Friday. That afternoon, he suffered a strained calf and never was heard from again until Monday, when he left a message with team officials that he planed to retire.

"I can't speak for the player because I haven't talked to him, but I'm sure he felt frustrated after he was injured," Payton said Monday. "I don't think the injury was that severe. Ultimately, he decided that he didn't want to play anymore. That's all we know. We haven't seen him; we know he's not playing, so we're moving on."

Morgan, 30, first attempted a comeback in New Orleans in March 2008, after playing seven seasons for Carolina, which had made him the 11th overall pick of the 2001 NFL draft. In May 2008, Morgan announced his retirement, citing health and family reasons.

In February, he had a change of heart and rejoined the Saints after being reinstated by league officials.

This is the latest injury for the former Pro Bowl middle linebacker, whose career in Carolina was marred by numerous concussions, a broken leg, pulled hamstring, a chronic shoulder and partially torn Achilles' tendon.

"You don't get surprised by anything anymore," Payton said. "With him, it's a second go-around for us. But in fairness to him, the difference this time around is that he had gone through the offseason program, whereas the first time there was very little invested when he decided to sit out a year.

"In this case, he had been here for pretty much all of the offseason program, seven or eight weeks of lifting and running. So, it's a little bit more of a surprise being that he had been here through it all."

News of Morgan's retirement plans first surfaced when Rosen-

haus posted this message on his Twitter page: "Dan Morgan has informed the Saints that he has decided to retire due to continued injuries. Dan would like to thank the Saints for the . . . chance to come back this year, but injuries would not let him continue his career. His decision is final, and he will be moving on to focus . . . on his restaurant business in Charlotte (N.C.). Dan also wants to be able to spend more time with his wife and children."

Phone calls to Morgan and Rosenhaus were not returned.

"To be honest with you, after the injury (Morgan) went into the locker room, got dressed and left," Payton said. "Our trainers didn't see him, we didn't see him.

"I put a couple calls into him (Friday) evening to check on him. By Sunday, we still hadn't seen him. My own take on it would be that it had to be more than just a calf injury. In other words, there might have been other reasons why he decided to do this. Look, this is not for everybody. For a player, they arrive at points in their career, they come to a decision and they move forward."

And, it appears the Saints will move forward, too, without Morgan.

"If Dan has reservations about playing, and he doesn't want to be all in, it's good to know now," Loomis said.

Asked if Morgan's abrupt departure is a loss to the team, Loomis said: "I wouldn't call it a loss. A loss is when you plan to have to have something in place and it doesn't happen. That's a loss. Our thinking all along was that if he could come back and play at anywhere close to the level that he had played like in the past, that would be a bonus. It would have been a bonus if he had been able to recapture his past.

"But we don't have any financial investment in him. We're not out anything, we just didn't gain anything. Are we disappointed? Yeah, a little because he had been doing really well in the offseason program, OTAs and minicamp before getting injured. So, we were just getting excited about him and then he decided not to play. So in that respect, it's a little disappointing."

N.O. TO SPEND SOME CAMP TIME IN HOUSTON: The Saints are planning to take some of their training camp practices on location to Houston this summer leading up to their Aug. 22 preseason game against the Texans.

This will be the third year in a row New Orleans has joined up with another team for a change of pace at training camp. Last year, the Texans came to Metairie for three days before a preseason game at the Superdome, and two years ago the Saints practiced against the Bengals in Cincinnati.

Players and coaches generally like to hit somebody else and see different schemes. It certainly helps break up the monotony of summer two-a-days.

The only drawback is that the injury risk increases. Last year, the Saints lost veteran defensive tackle Hollis Thomas to a torn triceps during a blocking drill against Texans center Chris Myers.

The Saints will open camp July 30 at their training facility in Metairie. They decided to stay home after spending the last three years at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss.

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Brian Allee-Walsh can be reached at ballee-walsh@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3850.

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