GREEN BAY — The Green Bay Packers’ wait for Micah Parsons’ return to practice — a precursor to him returning to game action — will wait another week. 

At least.

“As soon as they give us the green light, he’ll be out there,” Packers head coach Matt LaFleur said Monday, one day after the team’s 31-7 victory over the rival Chicago Bears — and in advance of this Sunday’s prime-time matchup against the Dallas Cowboys, Parsons’ former team.

“That hasn’t happened yet. But I think we’re getting closer.”

Parsons, who underwent Dec. 29 surgery to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament and torn meniscus in his left knee, remains on the physically unable to perform list, where he spent all of training camp this summer.

Under the NFL’s PUP list rules, Parsons could have started practicing after the Sept. 20 win over the New York Jets.

When he last spoke to reporters in early August, Parsons suggested — without guaranteeing or predicting — that he could be cleared for game action in time to face his former team.

“I think it’s very realistic,” said Parsons, who spent his first four NFL seasons with the Cowboys, recording 52.5 sacks, earning three All-Pro honors and four Pro Bowl selections. “Me and the [medical] staff, we’ve got to get to the point where I’m feeling great and we say, ‘Micah, you’ll be in a really good phase.’

“Is it possible? Yes. I wouldn’t say it’s not possible. But, at the same time, in these next 10, 12 weeks from now on, we’ve got to do our part to make it possible. It’s not off the board, but we’ve got to put the work in.” 

Now, it is off the board. And considering Parsons still hasn’t done any football-related activities — he said in June that his doctors had given him a strict no-football edict — he’ll presumably need multiple weeks of practicing before he sees game action.

“You’ve got to get him back on the practice field and there’s a lot of testing that goes on before he gets medically cleared to get out there,” LaFleur said Monday. “And then I’m sure we’re going to want to give him some time to get back to playing football. As you see with most guys that are coming off a major injury, it takes a little bit of time.”

After Sunday night’s prime-time tilt against the Cowboys, the Packers’ next four games are at Detroit on Oct. 25; a “Thursday Night Football” matchup with the Carolina Panthers at Lambeau Field on Oct. 29; a Nov. 8 game at New England; and a Nov. 15 home game against the Minnesota Vikings.

The Packers’ bye week follows, although it’s an abbreviated bye because they’ll play the Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium in suburban L.A. on Nov. 25, the night before Thanksgiving.

If Parsons hasn’t returned to game action by the Rams game, they’ll have only six games remaining in the regular season.

What’s perplexing about Parsons’ timeline is that general manager Brian Gutekunst raised expectations for an earlier return during a Q&A session with reporters on Sept. 1, after final cuts at the end of training camp.

“We have a pretty good idea once we get out of that four-game [PUP] window that we’re going to be pretty close,” Gutekunst said at the time. “As you guys have heard me say, I’m going to be pretty cautious with that. We’ve got a big investment there. He’s really important to what we’re trying to do. To accomplish the goals we want to late in the year, he’s going to need to be at his best. So, I want to make sure that that happens.

“But he’s eager. There’s a new rule this year where we can open their window to practice after the second game. I imagine when that time comes, there’s going to be some conversations about what he can and can’t do, because he’s going to be really eager to get out there.”

Instead, Packers-Cowboys will mark the sixth game Parsons, who recorded 12.5 sacks in his first 13 games with the Packers before he tore the ACL during a Dec. 14 loss at Denver, has missed.

Asked on Monday if something had changed since Gutekunst’s comments, LaFleur replied, “I think we were all hopeful, but he’s just [not ready] … I mean, he’s a physical specimen, he’s a creature of nature for sure and sometimes you’ve got to make sure that your body is [in sync]. You don’t want one leg to be that much stronger than the other leg.”

LaFleur also said the Packers’ approach to Parsons’ comeback is unrelated to the season-ending ruptured patellar tendon right tackle Zach Bako-Bewele suffered in Week 2 against the Jets.

Bako-Bewele initially suffered a partial tear of the tendon in the same Dec. 14 against the Broncos that ended Parsons’ season. He opted for a less invasive surgery that was supposed to allow his body to heal itself and have him ready for the start of the season.

Bako-Bewele did indeed start the opener at Minnesota, but his season ended seven days later against the Jets.

“No, you never allow one instance or one player’s [injury] to effect somebody else,” LaFleur said. “This is all about him.”

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