Bad news came the Lions way today after a second opinion on Lions rookie DT Nick Fairley revealed that surgery was necessary on his injured foot.
Dr. Bob Anderson ended up performing the surgery on Fairley in North Carolina Wednesday with the Lions revealing that he (Fairley) would miss a “significant portion of training camp.” After that the Lions refused to reveal anything else about the injury or the surgery itself.
According to Tom Kowalski of Mlive.com, the injury to Fairley won’t affect the starting lineup once the regular season starts since Ndamukong Suh and Corey Williams were already slated to be the starting defensive tackles.
Here’s the entire Lions’ statement: “The examination of Nick Fairley’s foot today by Dr. Bob Anderson resulted in a diagnosis consistent with that of Lions’ team physicians that surgical correction was required. Accordingly, surgery was successfully performed this afternoon in Charlotte, N.C., by Dr. Anderson. Nick is expected to miss a significant portion of training camp.”
Now you never want to see a rookie like Fairley be out for any significant time during training camp. However if an injury was going to occur at any position on the Lions’ roster, the defensive line can afford it most.
Source: Mlive.com, DetroitLions.com