Desmond Bishop Needs Surgery; Davon House, James Starks Also Injured

Following Green Bay Packers practice on Sunday night, Mike McCarthy announced that inside linebacker Desmond Bishop would require surgery on his hamstring. The injury will cause him to miss the start of the regular season for sure, and it could be a potentially season-ending injury. McCarthy spoke about Bishop as a person and how much it hurts to lose someone with his work ethic.

"Personally, I feel just terrible. It was a very unusual injury. If you have a chance to see it on film, it's just unfortunate. Everyone knows the type of player Desmond is for us. He's definitely one of the spiritual type of individuals. The energy he brings to the workplace and just the way he plays. He puts so much into it. After last year with his calf injuries, I know he was really looking forward to having a big year."

As of right now, the proposed rule change that would allow teams to bring one player off injured reserve has not gone into effect, so the Packers will have a very tough decision to make about whether or not to put Bishop on IR. They likely won't have enough information to make that decision until after the surgery. In addition to his hamstring injury, Bishop also has a sprained knee.

D.J. Smith will take over at weak side ILB in his place, and I have all the faith in the world in Smith. He's going to step up and perform at a starter-caliber level, even if he isn't as good of a player as Bishop at this point in his career. I expect to see Rob Francois play quite a bit of weak side ILB throughout preseason and become Smith's primary backup. We could see more of Jamari Lattimore playing inside as well, due to the injury to Bishop.

Davon House and James Starks are hurt too, among others. More injury news after the jump.

House is out 2-3 weeks with a dislocated shoulder and the team does not believe that his injury will require surgery. However, there is a possibility that surgery will have to be performed if the injury does not heal properly. If that's the case, House would either need to wear a harness and play hurt all season or have surgery, which would cause him to miss the start of the season.

Starks has turf toe and is week-to-week. The signing of Cedric Benson has not been finalized, but it's inevitable. PA will have more tomorrow on Starks' injury, Benson's signing and exactly how the battle for time at running back is being affected by these developments.

Jerel Worthy is also hurt and is day-to-day with a knee injury. He has not been ruled out of Thursday's game with the Browns yet, but it sounds like it will be a bit of a stretch for him to participate.

Mike Daniels returned to practice on Sunday, but Greg Jennings, Tori Gurley, Ryan Taylor, Ray Dominguez, Shaky Smithson, Diondre Borel, Brandon Saine, Jermichael Finley and Marshall Newhouse remained out, along with long-term injured players. John Kuhn and Charles Woodson, who sat out the Chargers game for precautionary reasons, participated in practice.