GREEN BAY, Wisconsin -- Aaron Rodgers found out he would start against the Chicago Bears just like the rest of his Green Bay Packers teammates did.

At 8:05 Thursday morning, Packers coach Mike McCarthy announced during a team meeting that Rodgers would return for Sunday's game, which will determine the NFC North champion.

"We were sitting in the team room, and he told us," Rodgers said. "That was the scene."

McCarthy's announcement ended weeks of speculation about whether Rodgers would return at all after breaking his collarbone Nov. 4 in this season's first meeting with the Bears.

"Every football player that plays in this game Sunday will have risk. I think we all understand that," McCarthy said. "So we've done our due diligence, we've gone through all the evaluations, and we feel it is time. Aaron is ready to play."

Rodgers returned to practice a month ago on a limited basis while waiting for clearance from team physician Dr. Pat McKenzie. McCarthy on Thursday would not discuss the process the team went through this week.

"I don't really want to get in to all of that," McCarthy said. "Frankly, there was a lot of discussion. I think anybody that knows our history, the people involved in those discussions, clearly understands that it was going to be talked about it, talked about again, talked about it over again, and so forth. That's why we've taken the time to get to this decision."

Rodgers was a full participant in practice Thursday for the first time since he broke his left collarbone on the opening series of the 27-20 loss to the Bears last month. Despite going 2-4-1 in the seven games that the former league MVP was sidelined, the Packers (7-7-1) can win the NFC North by beating the Bears (8-7) on Sunday.

McCarthy said he had hoped to have a decision made Tuesday, but the final medical evaluations had not yet been completed. The team was off Wednesday for Christmas, and this was the first bit of news it received when it returned to work.