Wide receiver Kevin Curtis spoke with reporters Monday morning for the first time since his surgery last week to repair a sports hernia. While he wasn't ready to put a timeline on when he might return to the field, he was fairly optimistic that he wouldn't miss much of the regular-season.

   ``I can't predict the future, but I'm going to do everything I can to get back on the field,'' Curtis said. ``From what I understand of the procedure, there's no reason at some point, I can't feel just as good as I did before the injury.

   Curtis said Dr. William Meyers, who performed the surgery on, told him not to compare his injury to teammates L.J. Smith and Donovan McNabb, who also needed sports hernia surgery. But he did say, ``both Donovan and L.J.'s (injuries) were a lot more extensive and there was a lot more damage. I wouldn't expect it to take as long as they took to get back.''

   Curtis said that while he aggravated the injury in the preseason game against Carolina on August 14, he's had problems with his groin area since he was with the St. Louis Rams. ``It's gotten worse over the years,'' he said. ``I know I started feeling it in training camp about 3 or 4 days into it. It started giving me problems and it gradually became harder and harder to get through practice with.''

   Curtis apparently never mentioned the injury to the team's training staff until after the Carolina game.

   ``Football players. . . you're going to have to play through some pain sometimes,'' he said. ``I underestimated it a little bit. I just figured it was one of those things you played through and eventually it would get better. But it didn't.''

   Curtis said he knows he has to be careful about coming back too early and reinjuring himself.

   ``Right now, I don't have any game (in mind for a return),'' he said. ``I plan on being back out there as soon as possible. I'm going to be back out there when I know I can't do more damage to it. You don't want to lose more time. You want to make sure it's right. I don't know what the magic formula is. I'm just going to know when I'm ready.''

   Curtis said he has the utmost confidence in the rest of the Eagles' receiving corps.

   ``I think they'll be fine.''

   On rookie wide receiver DeSean Jackson: ``I think he's going to be a huge addition for us.''