Carolina Panthers’ Shaq Thompson to miss Week 7, maybe more, with knee sprain

Carolina Panthers linebacker Shaq Thompson’s knee sprain will sideline at least this week and possibly more, coach Ron Rivera said Wednesday.

Thompson suffered the knee injury, reportedly a minor MCL sprain, on a kickoff return tackle near the end of last week’s win against Seattle.

“It’ll probably be at least a week and we’ll see how he’s reacting to all the treatment,” Rivera said. “We were very fortunate. He was very fortunate. It wasn’t as bad as it looked, thank goodness.

“As he can get the swelling down and the movement back, it could be a week, two weeks, three weeks, who knows? I really couldn’t give you a timetable. It’d probably be unfair to the kid to give him a timetable and create expectations.”

The loss of Thompson for this week’s game against Philadelphia may not be felt as much as in other games for Carolina. The Eagles are a pass-heavy team with a big receiver in the slot, so the Panthers will most likely run a lot of nickel defense. That would normally take Thompson off the field in favor of cornerback Bené Benwikere.

Tight end Richie Brockel (hamstring), defensive tackle Dwan Edwards (ankle) and offensive tackle Daryl Williams (knee) did not practice Wednesday.

Defensive end Jared Allen, who sat out last week when a pinched nerve in his back made him lose some feeling in his left leg, said he is feeling “100 percent better.”

“You know what? I trained hard all weekend and worked my butt to get back out there,” Allen said. “Just keep rehabbing and be ready to go Sunday.”

Allen was limited at practice along with cornerback Teddy Williams, who’s in the concussion protocol.

Linebacker A.J. Klein fully participated in the non-contact drills at practice as he awaits a visit with the independent neurologist to be cleared from the concussion protocol as well.

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 5:06 PM with the headline "Carolina Panthers’ Shaq Thompson to miss Week 7, maybe more, with knee sprain."