GREEN BAY – Safety Atari Bigby will have ankle surgery tomorrow in North Carolina according to several reports from Green Bay Packers head coach Mike McCarthy's post-practice press conference on Thursday morning. Bigby wasn't present at practice on Tuesday when he originally traveled to see Dr. Robert Anderson in North Carolina for a consultation. He returned in time for Thursday's a.m. practice but didn't take part.

Bigby was placed on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list last week when he failed a conditioning test. Bigby later said he aggravated the ankle during the test itself.

The injury dates back to the 2008 season when Bigby originally hurt the ankle and went through the entire year with other nagging shoulder and knee injuries. Bigby also indicated after the '08 season that his injuries may have been worse than either he or the team let on.

The extent of recovery time is as of yet unknown, but it appears as if Bigby will start off the regular season on the PUP list, which would force him to miss the first six games of the 2010 season. Season-ending injured reserve is a possibility, but it looks to be too early to tell.

Bigby was a restricted free agent this offseason and chose not not to sign his tender until right before training camp, the only Packer to choose to go that route, and only among a handful in the entire NFL. The Packers chose to reduce Bigby's tender to 110% of his '09 salary, allowed by NFL rules, when he didn't sign his original second-round tender offer by June 15.

Had Bigby signed his tender in time for the Packers' offseason program, it's possible the Packers could have determined the extent of his injury months earlier. Although, McCarthy appeared not to speculate on that possibility. It's hard to gauge how much damage was done during the conditioning test itself.

"Bigby said the surgery is a scope, not the microfracture procedure he had 2 years ago," reports Rob Demovsky of the Green Bay Press-Gazette on Twitter.

Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote on Twitter that Bigby doesn't expect the injury to be season ending.

Switching positions: Second-year outside linebacker Brad Jones returned to practice today after taking a helmet to the back this past weekend and recuperated for a couple practices, but he was taking reps on the right hand side of the defensive formation.

All last season and all offseason, Jones had been on the left outside linebacker with Clay Matthews on the right side. But since Jones injured his back during training camp, Matthews has primarily been practicing over on the left side.

Brandon Chillar had been practicing in Jones' place at outside linebacker, but Jones was inserted back into the first-string upon his return, albeit on the right-hand side.

Brady Poppinga continued to back up Matthews on the left side.

Behind the 8-ball: All veterans of six NFL seasons and over were given the morning practice off. That included starting offensive linemen Chad Clifton, Mark Tauscher and Scott Wells.

In their place, the offensive line from left to right this morning consisted of Bryan Bulaga, Daryn Colledge, Jason Spitz, Josh Sitton and Breno Giacomini.

T.J. Lang, considered by some to be one of the better offensive linemen on the team, was relegated to the second-team right tackle behind Giacomini. It stands to reason that Lang would be the second-string right guard behind Sitton, but Sitton was present at practice and has been very reliable from a health standpoint over the course of his young career.

For a guy that could be among the top five offensive linemen on the team, Lang is not getting as many opportunities as other offensive linemen on the team.

Lang admitted that he may have been a little bit hesitant with his surgically repaired wrist following the first practice of training camp but has had no limitations during practice.