ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Matthew Stafford took his first step toward returning from a knee injury. The Detroit Lions' rookie quarterback now must wait to see if he took it too soon.
Stafford returned to practice Wednesday after missing last weekend's loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a knee injury. It's not clear whether he has a shot at playing against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday.
"It was good to be doing something again," Stafford said. "The question will be how it (the knee) reacts tomorrow. I'm not even thinking about playing on Sunday right now -- I just want to see how it feels on Thursday."
Stafford, who sustained a knee injury during an Oct. 4 loss at Chicago, acknowledged that he isn't 100 percent.
"It is on its way, but I can still feel it a little bit," he said. "It's not a lot of fun watching from the sidelines, but we'll have to see how this goes. I'm not going to know for a few more days."
Lions coach Jim Schwartz was cautiously optimistic about Stafford's status.
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"He's improving -- doing a little more every day -- but there's still a long way to go until Sunday and definitely a lot of ground left to be covered," he said.
Wide receiver Calvin Johnson didn't practice with the Lions because of his knee injury.
"He's also improving, but you saw that he wasn't able to do things today," Schwartz said. "If he can't go, we have other guys who will have to step up, but it definitely changes the way a defense will play us. Calvin is the kind of guy that a coordinator always has to account for when he's on the field."
Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press