GREEN BAY, Wis. -- The Green Bay Packers are hopeful that wide receiver Donald Driver's foot injury is not too serious.
Driver was hurt on Thursday night in the Packers' 21-13 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars after making a 12-yard reception late in the second quarter.
Driver was not available in the locker room for comment on Friday, and general manager Ted Thompson remained quiet on the specifics of his top receiver's condition.
"He was feeling better today and the doctors are still fairly encouraged," Thompson said. "He's a remarkably tough professional football player who was also blessed with remarkable genetics. But we're hopeful, I don't know how you can predict this, but we feel fairly good that he's going to be OK."
Team doctor Patrick McKenzie also ordered more tests on Driver's foot.
"I talked to Pat this morning and he said everything looks good and we're going to do some additional scans just to make certain," Thompson said.
After the game, coach Mike McCarthy said that McKenzie didn't believe Driver's injury was the "long word, French thing," also known as a Lisfranc fracture, named after a French doctor and considered a career-threatening injury.
Thompson said Driver's injury was unfortunate because he was not expected to play much in the Packers' preseason finale against Tennessee.
"You don't go out (with the trainers) and get him very often," Thompson said. "He usually comes off on his own accord, even if he's banged up a little bit."
But Thompson didn't criticize McCarthy's decision to leave Driver in the game for the series. Brett Favre had left the game on the Packers' previous possession.
"That's the nature of the beast, that's the National Football League," Thompson said. "You're going to put your foot in the wrong spot sometimes and things happen, but fortunately we think we dodged something here."
Thompson also made it a point not to rule out that Driver could miss significant time.
He said he'd rather give vague information than something incorrect before finally conceding on the seventh question about Driver that doctors thought he would be ready for the opener against Philadelphia on Sept. 9.
"That's what we're hoping for," Thompson said. "That's what we think will probably happen, but you never know."
Driver played hurt in the final weeks last season with a shoulder injury that did not need surgery, but was held out of the opening days of training camp this year as a precaution.
He's also been extremely durable throughout his career.
Driver has appeared in all but four of the Packers' 114 games since 2000, missing three games in 2001 with a bruised quadriceps muscle and one game in 2003 with a sprained neck. He avoided missing a playoff game in 2002 despite having a bruised and strained right shoulder.
Driver is set to enter the season with a streak of 80 games with at least one catch, the second-longest in team history behind Sterling Sharpe's 103 games.
Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press
