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Jennings ‘pain-free’ but no timetable announced

WR Greg Jennings declared himself “pain-free” on Monday, about 11 days following surgery on an abdominal muscle, but he’s not announcing any timetable for his potential return.

“I’m pain-free, so that’s a step in the right direction,” said Jennings, who has missed the last five games and six of the last seven. “As far as a timetable for getting back out there on the field, still really just taking it a day at a time. That’s all we can do. But I feel really, really good. Really good.”

Jennings said he hasn’t been pain-free in his abdominal area since originally sustaining the injury in the fourth quarter of Week 1 against San Francisco. He sat out Week 2 against Chicago, then played in Week 3 at Seattle and again in Week 4 against New Orleans before leaving that game midway through. He hasn’t played since.

As he did before the surgery, he sounded confident he would return this season, but he’s just not interested in saying when.

“I have a target in my own mind,” he said. “It’s in my mind, and I’m going to keep it right there.”

In other injury news, LB Desmond Bishop spoke with reporters on Monday and said all is going well with his rehab. Bishop was lost for the season in the first preseason game due to a hamstring injury that required surgery.

“I foresee me being close to 100 percent, I would say February-ish,” Bishop said. “I’m just focused on positive energy to get this leg right and get back to regular form, or even better actually.”

In the meantime, Bishop said he’s been impressed with his current replacement, Brad Jones, who took over when Bishop’s initial replacement, D.J. Smith, was also lost for the season to injury. Jones originally came to the Packers in 2009 as an outside linebacker, but Bishop said he could see even then that Jones was a bit of a natural inside.

“I always knew he was a good player,” Bishop said. “When he first came, he did some scout team reps at middle linebacker, and I thought he could actually fit as a middle linebacker. I think he’s doing really good.”

Shields, Sherrod, Worthy practice Monday

Amidst the news that T Bryan Bulaga is out for the season, the Packers did get a few injured players back on the practice field on Monday.

CB Sam Shields (ankle) and DL Jerel Worthy (concussion), who have both missed games in recent weeks, returned to practice. Also, T Derek Sherrod, who has been on PUP since the start of the season, has begun practicing. The Packers activated a three-week practice window for Sherrod during the bye week and will now have two weeks to decide whether to add him to the active roster or place him on injured reserve.

LB Clay Matthews (hamstring), FB John Kuhn (hamstring), WR Greg Jennings (groin/abdominal) and DE Mike Neal were not practicing on Monday. Neal played in the Packers’ last game even though he was listed on the injury report with an ankle injury. It is not yet known whether Neal is resting his ankle or if something else has cropped up.

Mike McCarthy will be addressing the media after practice shortly.