GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has a broken collarbone. How long this injury keeps the former NFL Most Valuable Player off the field is still to be determined.
"I think we'll know more as the week goes on," Rodgers said on his ESPN Radio show Tuesday afternoon. "I do have a fractured collarbone; that's a significant injury. We'll know more about the severity and the timetable later this week.
"We're holding out hope that this will be a quick heal, but it is a significant injury."
After Monday night's game, which the Packers lost 27-20 to the Chicago Bears, coach Mike McCarthy didn't have "an exact diagnosis." Now, though, McCarthy is relatively encouraged by the results, despite saying that he doesn't have a timeline for Rodgers' return.
"The doctors felt much better today than they did last night, based on the new information," McCarthy said.
The injury could keep Rodgers out for multiple weeks. However, while McCarthy is preparing for Seneca Wallace to start, he said the team is "in a week-to-week mindset" and wasn't even ready to officially rule out Rodgers for Sunday's upcoming game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
"Let's not kid ourselves; if (Rodgers) walked in your office and asked for the ball on Saturday, what would you do?," McCarthy said. "So, we'll just see what happens."
Rodgers didn't seem very optimistic that he'd be back right away.
"It's a difficult injury because there's not a specific type of rehab you can do for this," Rodgers said. "It's not like you can get a massage or (stimulation) or the different various treatments that they have out there that can try to get you back quicker.
"You just have to wait for the bone to heal. That's going to be the frustrating part, but I feel like I've been a quick healer in the past and am hopeful this will be on the short end of whatever prognosis comes up."
Rodgers was sacked by Bears defensive lineman Shea McClellin on Green Bay's opening drive and landed hard on his left shoulder. Rodgers grimaced as he got off the ground.
"He kind of bear-hugged me and there was a forceful throw-down maybe a tad quicker than I thought, and my arm got caught underneath me there," Rodgers said. "I've fallen on both shoulders a number of times and never had this happen. Obviously played football a long time, and if you hit on your back or shoulders you try and roll from time to time, but this hit got on me a little quicker this time than usual and I felt some pain as I came off the field and was in considerable pain."
The sack occurred on third down, so Rodgers would have gone to the sideline no matter what after the play. Rodgers tossed a few passes back and forth with Wallace near the bench, but that didn't last long. Soon, Rodgers was jogging into the locker room with the Packers' training staff.
"Well, the first thought is always, 'I'm going to play through whatever I have,'" Rodgers said. "I've sustained some injuries of various harshness, I guess, and I've gotten back on the field and the pain goes away. Maybe it hurts Monday or Tuesday, but you deal with it. In this case, it was considerably more pain than I've felt in a long time. Obviously wasn't able to throw the way I wanted to on the sideline.
"I agreed to an X-ray and wanted to do it quickly so that I could potentially get back on the field. That's why I went to the locker room as quick as possible."
Rodgers didn't know until halftime -- more than one hour after the injury occurred -- that he wouldn't be returning to the game.
"I'm sitting there listening to the game and watching it, and I hear something about me not going back in the game," Rodgers said. "I said, 'Hold on a second. Let me see what I can do here.' So I put the pads back on, and tried to see what I could do in there."
But that didn't go well. After taking some snaps in the locker room from offensive lineman Greg Van Roten (who's on injured reserve) and throwing passes to wide receiver Randall Cobb (who's on injured reserve with a designation to return in Week 15), Rodgers realized there was no chance he could play.
Upon that realization, Rodgers put on sweatpants and a sweatshirt and walked from the tunnel to the sideline to help Wallace as the team went through the second half.
The Lambeau Field crowd roared as they saw Rodgers emerge, even though he wasn't in his pads. Even a day later, it was clear how emotional that moment was for him.
"When I walked back out on that field -- I'm getting a little choked up here just thinking about it -- but that was one of the top five moments of my career there," Rodgers said. "The reception I got from the fans was, it was, it was pretty special."
The next step for Rodgers doesn't involve much that he or the Packers can control.
"It's a waiting game now," Rodgers said.
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