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Luke Musgrave, the Green Bay Packers’ rookie tight end, is out of the hospital after sustaining an abdominal injury that he reported after Sunday’s win over the Los Angeles Chargers, head coach Matt LaFleur said Tuesday.

Musgrave caught four passes for 28 yards against the Chargers but didn’t say anything during the game about his injury, which LaFleur called “a scary situation.” LaFleur said Musgrave’s “pretty significant injury” was not to his appendix, but he would not specify further beyond saying the team has a good idea of what the injury is. It remains unclear how long the 2023 second-round pick will be sidelined, with LaFleur offering a “we’ll see” when asked whether Musgrave will go on injured reserve.

“He called Flea (head trainer Bryan Engel), and he’s been in the hospital,” LaFleur said of Musgrave. “It’s been pretty significant. This kid is as tough as they come, and I think that was pretty evident coming out of that Denver game (in Week 7) when he hurt his ankle. He was battling to get back into that game and wasn’t happy when they weren’t letting him back in. … Obviously, I think he’s going to be a very dynamic player in time in this league. He continues to get better every time he goes out there, so obviously a significant blow for us offensively.”

Luke Musgrave winning one-on-one against Derwin James on 3rd down, plus a good ball from Jordan Love.

— Nate Tice (@Nate_Tice) November 21, 2023

Musgrave’s absence creates an opportunity for rookie third-round tight end Tucker Kraft, who has only five catches for 43 yards this season, including a 27-yard catch-and-run on a flat route against the Chargers (Musgrave has 33 catches for 341 yards and a touchdown).

“I think Tucker, you’ve seen the growth in him, making a huge play on a simple flat route and just showing his athleticism and his speed,” LaFleur said. “I think a lot of things — you don’t always see just the growth he’s had in the run game as well, as a blocker. It’s been evident. Certainly going to be more on his plate in this game.”

Disaster averted

In perhaps more positive injury news, tests confirmed that running back Aaron Jones avoided the worst-case scenario of a torn ACL, as he initially feared. ESPN first reported that Jones suffered a sprained MCL, and LaFleur said he doesn’t believe Jones will need an injured reserve stint.

LaFleur did say, however, that it’s highly unlikely Jones will play against the Detroit Lions on Thursday, which comes as no surprise after he was carted off the field Sunday while visibly emotional with a towel over his head.

“Very relieved,” LaFleur said. “Very relieved that it’s not anything long-term, so we’ll just kind of work through that.”

GO DEEPER

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Old face, old place

Patrick Taylor was watching the Packers’ game against the Chargers with his wife, Lauren, in their Foxboro, Mass., apartment last Sunday. Taylor, who signed with the Packers as an undrafted free-agent running back in 2020 and bounced between the practice squad and active roster the past couple of seasons before being released in early October, spent the past month and a half on the New England Patriots’ practice squad. When he saw Jones and third-string running back Emanuel Wilson go down late in the first half with knee and shoulder injuries, respectively, he figured a call was coming soon.

The Packers have a short turnaround before facing the Lions in Detroit on Thursday morning, so they needed a running back who already knew their offense, with Jones and Wilson set to miss the game. Packers executive vice president/director of football operations Russ Ball called Chris Cabott, Taylor’s agent, and Cabott called Taylor, who didn’t pick up. So Cabott called Taylor’s wife, who handed her husband the phone to learn he was coming back to Green Bay. This was all at halftime of the Packers-Chargers game, mere minutes after the injuries.

“I mean, I said it: ‘Hey, Lauren, we might be going back to the Packers,’ but I didn’t think it would happen so soon,” Taylor said in the locker room Tuesday. “Literally two minutes, three minutes after I said that, my agent called. … I looked at her, and then she was like, ‘Yeah, we’re probably going back to the Green Bay Packers.’”