Janis still hoping to play Saturday

Jeff Janis is hoping he can get in some contact work in practice Wednesday, which would open the door to him playing in the Packers' preseason opener at Tennessee on Saturday.

The seventh-round draft pick missed the first seven full practices of camp because of the shingles. He was cleared the last two days to be in uniform and take part only in jog-through type work.

He did some contact work with the strength and conditioning coaches after practice Tuesday and is hoping to be cleared for full-time practice Wednesday. The team doesn't practice Thursday and probably won't be in pads Friday, so for Janis to have any chance of playing against Tennessee he'll have to take part in contact work Wednesday.

"Once I have one practice with some kind of hitting I'll be good to go for the games," Janis said.

Janis said he first realized something was wrong the night before the start of training camp, when he had a terrible pain in his side and struggled to breath. He'd passed his pre-camp physical earlier in the day yet ended up in the hospital before the Packers' 8:20 a.m. practice the next morning.

"It's something that took me by surprise too, I didn't know what the heck (shingles) was either," Janis said. "It's definitely not something I'd want anyone to get."

Janis said he had chicken pox when he was a child, and somehow the virus was re-activated for an unknkown reason. He was treated with medication.

"For most people it's a skin reaction that really burns on the outside," he said. "For me it wasn't as much on the outside, it was kind of a deep tingling, every time I took a breath it kind of shocked me."