GREEN BAY, Wis.— Barring some sort of minor medical miracle, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers will once again be playing through the pain of a sprained right shoulder on Sunday.

At least now he knows he can do it, leaving "no doubt" that he'll be on the field in Seattle.

With his effort in a loss to Atlanta last Sunday, Rodgers removed any lingering doubts in his own mind about his ability to shrug off a significant injury.

"Being able to play, and realizing the pain that I went through last week and pushing through it told me I can play with it," Rodgers said Wednesday. "I'm very confident I can play this week. I'm hoping the pain and the soreness will be less, but either way I'm going to go."

A week after spraining his right shoulder in a game against Tampa Bay, Rodgers played against the Falcons — and played well. The Packers lost the game, but Rodgers won more respect in the locker room.

Rodgers said he felt a "duty" to play as one of the team's leaders. But he was quick to point out that linebacker A.J. Hawk, cornerback Charles Woodson and others also are playing through significant injuries.

"I don't want to single myself out as the only guy playing with pain, because we all are," Rodgers said. "A.J. didn't practice all week and played, Wood's been doing it for a number of weeks now. But, as one of the leaders of this football team, I felt like it was my duty to be on the field as long as I could play close to the level of effectiveness I feel I'm capable of playing at."

The decision to let Rodgers play against the Falcons wasn't made until a few hours before game time, after Rodgers proved to Packers coach Mike McCarthy that he could make all the throws he needed to in a closed-door warmup session at an indoor practice facility across the street from Lambeau Field.

And while Rodgers' participation in practice will be significantly restricted again this week, he doesn't expect to be a game-time decision against Seattle.

"I'm going to play. No doubt about that," Rodgers said. "But I'm hoping I can be a little better for Friday and maybe do a little bit more. But that still remains to be seen."

Rodgers made only a cameo appearance in the portion of Packers practice that was open to the media on Wednesday. He didn't throw a pass during a jog-through period, then left before full-speed team drills began.

McCarthy's plan going into the week was to have Rodgers begin throwing on a limited basis Thursday, but the Packers want to see how he responds to rehabilitation exercises.

"He was sore yesterday so they backed off him, and then they were going to rehab him hard again today," McCarthy said. "We'll see where he is in the morning."

Either way, Rodgers said the injury is better than it was a week ago.

"The shoulder's doing better than it was last week at this point," Rodgers said. "But we're just going day-by-day. The guys in the training room are doing a great job, spending time with me. We've been working on strength and flexibility, just trying to maintain and feel better each day and go from there."

Rodgers barely practiced at all last week, but still managed to go 25-for-37 for 313 yards with three touchdowns against Atlanta — and nearly led the Packers to a late comeback.

He did make one major mistake, a fourth-quarter interception deep in Packers territory that set up a Falcons touchdown. But McCarthy said earlier this week that coaches gave Rodgers' overall performance high marks.

"I think I proved to the staff and really to myself — although you don't want this to be a precedent — that I can play effectively without practicing all week," Rodgers said. "Now, I don't want to set that as a precedent for the season. I want to be out there as much as I can. but you have to be realistic with the state of my body at the moment."

For Rodgers, the biggest concern about missing practice is not having a handle on what his distance and accuracy might be like until the game starts.

But he figures that's how it's going to be until the Packers' off week Oct. 26.

"That's kind of what I have to deal with at the moment," Rodgers said. "Hopefully my shoulder will be feeling a little bit better this Sunday, but I think until I have a couple good weeks to not do anything, which will be the bye week, that's kind of the pain I'll be in. I think my pain threshold is such that I can deal with that."