SAN DIEGO -- When healthy, Brandon Flowers has been one of the best defensive players on the field for the San Diego Chargers this season.

But staying on the field has been an issue for the 28-year-old cornerback.

Flowers has missed two games this season -- one against the Denver Broncos due to a concussion suffered Oct. 19 game against the Kansas City Chiefs, and another because of a lingering groin issue against the Seattle Seahawks on Sept. 14.

Cleared to practice after passing the league's concussion protocol Thursday, Flowers was a full participant in practice and hopes the injury issues are behind him.

"It feels like as soon as I get into a groove, something comes up," Flowers said. "But I usually don't miss a lot of games in a season. So hopefully I've got them all out the way now. That's how I'm looking at it. I'm trying to stay positive, and just be on the field every game from here on out for the rest of the season."

Flowers is tops on the Chargers in interceptions (two) and passes defensed (seven). Head coach Mike McCoy said his Chargers could use the veteran corner's presence on the field.

"Any player we can get back out there that's going to help us win football games is big," McCoy said. "And with his leadership and ability to make plays, it's always great to have him back out there."

Along with Flowers, center Rich Ohrnberger (back) and edge rushers Jeremiah Attaochu (hamstring) and Dwight Freeney (knee) returned to practice Thursday.

Attaochu was a limited participant, while Ohrnberger and Freeney were full participants. Donald Brown (concussion), Reggie Walker (ankle) and Steve Williams (groin) also were full participants.

Ryan Mathews (knee), Manti Te'o (foot), Jason Verrett (shoulder) and Jahleel Addae (concussion) did not practice for a second straight day.

McCoy acknowledged that Verrett's been dealing with a torn labrum in his left shoulder since he suffered the injury Oct. 12 against the Oakland Raiders.

"It's an injury that we've been dealing with for a couple weeks," McCoy said, when asked about Verrett's injury. "And he's had a lot of treatment on it and everything. And he gave it everything he had in the Denver game until it got to a point where he couldn't play any longer."

Asked if Verrett made the injury worse by playing against Denver last week, McCoy had this to say:

"We're not going to put anyone out there if we don't think they're ready to play. That's regardless of what the injury is, or what body part. They spend a lot of hours in the training room to get better and healthy. A number of players play with certain things. And with his injury, some players have played with that in the past, also. He's not the first guy to do this."

In fact, Verrett played with a similar injury his final season at TCU. Verrett had surgery to repair a torn labrum in his right shoulder in March during the offseason.

Verrett said he doesn't know for certain if he'll need surgery to repair his shoulder issue this time around.

"I haven't got that far yet," he said. "I'm still kind of deciding."

Verrett also said that he believes it was not a mistake to play last week against Denver.

"No, not at all," Verrett said. "My goal is to always be ready every week. I tested it out pregame. I felt great. I just was trying to go out there because we were kind of short at corner. I just wanted to help my team."