Packers' Rodgers optimistic about calf injury
Aaron Rodgers said that the injury that forced him to be carted to the locker room midway through Sunday's game was in a different area of his left calf than the original injury sustained two weeks ago.
The Green Bay Packers quarterback, on his weekly ESPN Wisconsin radio show Tuesday, added that he's optimistic about returning to the practice field next week.
"I'm feeling a little better," he said. "Been doing some pretty good treatment the last couple days. Yeah, feeling a little better.
"It's different. It's in a different spot. Same calf, different spot."
Rodgers collapsed to the ground after throwing a second-quarter touchdown pass on the run to Randall Cobb in a 30-20 victory over the Detroit Lions. Rodgers was helped off the field before being taken to the locker room on a cart with 2 minutes, 24 seconds left in the first half.
He returned early in the third quarter and played the rest of the game despite being limited physically.
The victory earned the Packers a first-round playoff bye and time for Rodgers to heal.
It's unlikely, though, that Rodgers' calf will be close to 100 percent healed by the time Green Bay hosts a divisional-round playoff game Jan. 11.
"I don't know, we'll see," Rodgers said. "I've been doing a lot of treatment around the clock. But that's the goal. Mike (McCarthy) I think is going to be … he's going to give me as much time off as I need, working up to it. But I'm going to want to get some on-the-field reps starting next week when we get in our preparation once we figure out who are opponent is this weekend.
"So I'm going to need to be on the field doing that, but it's a significant injury so you can't really say what percentage it's going to be in the game. I just don't know but I hope it's going to be feeling better than it was last weekend."
Players were given most of the week off and will return to practice Friday and Saturday.
"(It's) fortunate that we have two weeks here," Rodgers said, "because I feel confident that I'll be in a better spot than I was going into the Lions game with just a week of rest."