If Brett Favre's shoulder is bothering him, his head coach isn't aware of it.

Brad Childress said during his news conference Monday afternoon that he hasn't been informed of any new issue that Favre is having with his shoulder and added he expects the quarterback will play Sunday against the Packers at Mall of America Field.

“I just talked with [head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman] who just had Brett in there," Childress said. "To paraphrase, he’s sore today. He was in the cold tub but I think he anticipates practicing on Thursday and being ready to go against Green Bay.”

Favre is no longer practicing on Wednesdays because the Vikings want to get him an added day off each week to deal with a long list of injuries that includes a stress fracture in his left ankle and another fracture in his left heel.

This comes after ESPN reported Monday morning that Favre said he plans to contact Dr. James Andrews after experiencing pain in his right shoulder that could be related to surgery he had to repair a partially torn biceps tendon in spring 2009.

Favre speculated that it might be a similar injury to his biceps or there might be an issue with his rotator cuff. Doctors found that Favre had a partially torn rotator cuff in his throwing shoulder when they performed the surgery on his biceps. Favre, who has started an NFL record 294 consecutive regular-season games, told ESPN that he expects he will be asked to submit an MRI of his shoulder.

But Childress said he doesn't think that Favre is considering getting an MRI based on what the quarterback told Sugarman on Monday. (Update: Favre told ESPN on Monday that his shoulder is "no big deal -- right now," and he agreed with team officials that an MRI is not necessary.)

On Sunday, Favre informed ESPN's Ed Werder he had a sharp pain while putting on a T-shirt at practice Saturday and there was even discussion about taking a pain-killing injection so he could play. The injection didn't happen but it seems odd that Childress wouldn't have been in the loop on any of this.

"There wasn’t any concern," Childress said when asked if there were any worries about Favre's shoulder on Saturday. " He went through the pregame warmup."

With Favre dealing with a variety of injuries and having 16 interceptions and five lost fumbles, Childress was asked if he would consider going to Tarvaris Jackson.

"That'd be hypothetical," Childress said. "[Favre's] got enough of his faculties and doing enough things playing in the system here to give us a chance to win. Do you like the turnovers? I don't. I know we fell down on one. I know a ball got tipped on one. I can't remember the third one. I know he was shuffling up in the pocket when the ball got stripped or he was probably going to make a play to a guy that was coming open. All the rest would be hypothetical stuff."
 
No real answer

Childress has come under plenty of heat for the Vikings' 3-6 record but the coach admitted it isn't easy to answer how his team has gotten to this point.

“Oh boy, you’ve got to paint with a broad brush there," he said. "I can’t just say one thing. We’re doing it all together, just not playing good enough. Not doing the things, you talk about not converting third downs, you can talk about turnovers, you can talk about not being able to get off the field. It’s all encompassing. And typically that’s the way it is, it’s not one stand-alone factor I don’t think.”
 
So is Childress surprised by the lack of success?
 
“I expect to win every week we go out, all weeks, individually," he said. "I’m not surprised based on the way that we’ve played. I am surprised from the standpoint that every week we go out, Green Bay included, I expect to win this game.”
 
There has been speculation about Childress' job security although there is currently no indication he is in jeopardy of losing his job this season. But Childress admits that he has always felt as if he's coaching for his own survival.
 
"I always feel that way every year I’ve been in coaching," Childress said. "That’s the way I feel. Hey, we need to do a better job this year. Since I’ve been a GA [graduate assistant at the collegiate level], so we coach and do our best every single week.”
 
The case of the missing receiver
 
There is still debate about exactly when wide receiver Bernard Berrian aggravated his groin injury Sunday. Favre said he thought it happened in pregame warmups, but Berrian tweeted that was not the case.
 
Asked about this, Childress said: “Somebody mentioned something to me about that. That’s hard to read into what may or may not happen. I didn’t see the play that you’re referring to. I just know that Bernard slid down to me during  [warmups] when I got to the field and I said, ‘How’s the leg.’ And he said, ‘Ahhh, I don’t think it’s good enough to go.’ That’s the time that I became aware of it. Typically he was going to try to give it a go. Whether he tweaked it or pulled it more then. You have to believe that or an hour and a half before the game we would have had somebody else in his suit.”
 
Teams submit their 45-man rosters 90 minutes before kickoff and Berrian ended up being active because he didn't tell the team in time that he couldn't play.
 
 Etc.
  • Childress said wide receiver Percy Harvin received treatment Monday for his sprained left ankle but that the Vikings would wait and see how he's doing by Wednesday when they start practicing for Green Bay. "I think he's going to be just fine," Childress said. "Tough guy."
  • Asked about if the Vikings might have all their wide receivers, including Sidney Rice back by Sunday, Childress said: "It would be me guessing as to what the future holds. I just know today we need to get better on what we've done and make improvements correction wise and Wednesday start with the fundamental aspects."

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