AP

Packers safety Nick Collins was stretchered off the field after suffering a neck injury in September, and he still hasn’t been cleared to return to football. Packers coach Mike McCarthy says the coaching staff and medical staff are in agreement that he won’t be cleared until there’s absolutely no doubt that it’s completely safe.

Collins is slated for medical tests this week to determine how far along he is in his recovery, and McCarthy told Jason Wilde of ESPNMilwaukee.com that

“Dr. Pat McKenzie and our medical staff, they’re conservative by nature,” McCarthy said. “We’re not going to put him in harm’s way. If he’s on the field, he’ll be cleared, he’ll be 100 percent, everybody will be comfortable.”

McCarthy’s comments were reminiscent of those Steelers coach Mike Tomlin made in explaining why he wouldn’t let Ryan Clark play in Denver after Clark had experienced health problems associated with Denver’s altitude. Tomlin said he wouldn’t have allowed his own son to play under the same circumstances, and therefore he wouldn’t allow Clark to play either.

“If Nick was my son,” McCarthy told Wilde, “I would not let him play.”

And unless the doctors can convince McCarthy that Collins is sufficiently healed that he could feel comfortable putting his son on the football field after the same injury, Collins will not be cleared to play for the Packers.