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Panthers confirm: Cam Newton will have ankle surgery, expected to miss 4 months

Things have not gone well for Cam Newton this offseason. (Charlotte Observer/Getty Images) Things have not gone well for the Carolina Panthers' passing
Doug Farrar|
Panthers confirm: Cam Newton will have ankle surgery, expected to miss 4 months
Panthers confirm: Cam Newton will have ankle surgery, expected to miss 4 months

Things have not gone well for Cam Newton this offseason. (Charlotte Observer/Getty Images)

Things have not gone well for the Carolina Panthers' passing offense this offseason. The team lost its three most prolific receivers in free agency -- Steve Smith to the Ravens, Ted Ginn Jr. to the Cardinals and Brandon LaFell to the Patriots -- and now quarterback Cam Newton will undergo ankle surgery that will force him to miss minicamps and OTAs, but not training camp.

The news was first reported by Joseph Person of the Charlotte Observer, with Bill Voth of the Sports Xchange reporting that the injury was suffered in Carolina's 17-13 win over the New Orleans Saints on Dec. 22. The object of the surgery will be to "tighten up" the ligaments in his ankle, according to Voth.

"How it feels right now, it won’t even make for enough ink for a story,” Newton said of the injury on Dec. 26. “Whether it’s feeling great right now, feeling bad right now, come Sunday it will be at high-octane performance.”

The surgery will be performed at Carolina's Medical Center on Wednesday by team physician Dr. Robert Anderson. Newton will have a recovery time of approximately four months.

"The ankle was sore after the San Francisco game," head athletic trainer Ryan Vermillion said in a statement. "We wanted to see if rest would calm it down, but it is still bothering him, and the decision was made to address it."

The San Francisco game Vermillion refers to is the Panthers' 23-10 divisional-round loss to the 49ers on Jan. 12. In that game, Newton completed 16 passes in 25 attempts for 267 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

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"Terrible ending to a great season," Newton said of his first postseason start.

Newton set several rookie passing records in 2011, but struggled at times throughout the 2012 campaign. He bounced back strongly in 2013, throwing 24 touchdown passes to 13 interceptions, leading the Panthers to their first winning season since 2008.

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Doug Farrar
DOUG FARRAR

SI.com contributing NFL writer and Seattle resident Doug Farrar started writing about football locally in 2002, and became Football Outsiders' West Coast NFL guy in 2006. He was fascinated by FO's idea to combine Bill James with Dr. Z, and wrote for the site for six years. He wrote a game-tape column called "Cover-2" for a number of years, and contributed to six editions of "Pro Football Prospectus" and the "Football Outsiders Almanac." In 2009,  Doug was invited to join Yahoo Sports' NFL team, and covered Senior Bowls, scouting combines, Super Bowls, and all sorts of other things for Yahoo Sports and the Shutdown Corner blog through June, 2013. Doug received the proverbial offer he couldn't refuse from SI.com in 2013, and that was that. Doug has also written for the Seattle Times, the Washington Post, the New York Sun, FOX Sports, ESPN.com, and ESPN The Magazine.  He also makes regular appearances on several local and national radio shows, and has hosted several podcasts over the years. He counts Dan Jenkins, Thomas Boswell, Frank Deford, Ralph Wiley, Peter King, and Bill Simmons as the writers who made him want to do this for a living. In his rare off-time, Doug can be found reading, hiking, working out, searching for new Hendrix, Who, and MC5 bootlegs, and wondering if the Mariners will ever be good again.

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