ATHENS — It was a short day’s work for Georgia wide receiver Terry Godwin against Middle Tennessee.

The Bulldogs’ leading returning receiver from last year’s SEC Championship team hobbled to the locker room at halftime with a heavily iced wrap on his lower left left leg. Godwin has been battling what coach Kirby Smart called a “calf strain” since the opening week of the season. Before that, he missed almost all of Georgia’s preseason camp with a knee sprain.

While that certainly is not good news for the Bulldogs, it’s not necessarily a perilous situation for Georgia’s offense. Including walk-ons, the Bulldogs dressed out 20 wide receivers for Saturday’s game against the Blue Raiders.

Godwin returned to the field for the first time in Georgia’s SEC opener last week at South Carolina. He had one catch for 12 yards against the Gamecocks.

The senior played in the first half of Saturday’s game and was targeted twice on passes by quarterback Jake Fromm. He could not handle either one, however. An early deep ball bounced off his hands, and he was bobbling the ball going out of bounds on what would have been a short gain in the second quarter.

Godwin was one of the Bulldogs’ most reliable receivers as a junior last season. He second on the team with 38 catches for 639 yards and 6 touchdowns. He also made the catch of the year with a one-handed TD grab in Georgia’s 20-19 win at Notre Dame.

Junior Tyler Simmons has been starting at Georgia’s Y receiver position in Godwin’s absence. Simmons had a 56-yard TD run against MTSU Saturday on a jet sweep as the Bulldogs ran out to a 42-7 first-half lead.