Packers' Jordan Love has 'no concern' about surgically repaired thumb, plans to wear brace to begin season

Jordan Love returned to Green Bay Packers practice on Thursday after undergoing surgery to repair a ligament in his left thumb. Love said he doesn't foresee his thumb being a problem, even if he has to take some extra precautions in the early stages of the season.

Earlier in training camp, Love elected to surgically repair a ligament in the thumb of his non-throwing hand. That procedure was a success, and he's back at practice ahead of a Week 1 rivalry clash against the Detroit Lions.

"I have no concern for it," Love said about his thumb on Thursday.

Love said he needed surgery to restore his left thumb to full strength, and if he had chosen to wait on the procedure, that nagging injury would have lingered throughout the season. Love said doctors told him surgery was the best option, as opposed to risking reinjury every week.

"If you have no stability there, there's no strength as well," Love said. "It was pretty much just a limp thumb. I couldn't really do much with it. ... I'm not trying to be dealing with that throughout the course of the season. Who knows if that would have kept getting reinjured, kept getting messed up, and who knows how that would have been going through a whole season? So I think, and the doctors' opinion was, just go ahead and get the surgery knocked out and try to get back to as 100% as possible for the season."

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Right now, Love is limiting his use of the left thumb as it recovers. That means using his right hand for all hand-offs in practice. Even when the season begins, Love will be sporting a brace on the thumb until it feels 100% again.

"It'll be some weeks having it braced up and just keeping it protected," Love said. "It's one of those things, we'll play it by ear, as I start getting into games and seeing how it feels once you get back to live contact. But there'll be some time having it braced up."

Love is entering his third season as the starter in Green Bay, and he is coming off a season in which he threw for 3,389 yards, 25 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 15 games. Love will have a new target in first-round rookie Matthew Golden, and the defense should take some pressure off his shoulders after the blockbuster acquisition of Micah Parsons.