Cam Newton confirmed his Lisfranc injury in a vlog Friday afternoon, revealing he sprained his mid-left foot in the third preseason game.
“It happened — the unthinkable, so to speak,” Newton said in his post, via Brendan Marks of the Charlotte Observer. “Something else got hurt.”
The Panthers quarterback called the injury “mild,” but said he does not know how long he will remain out. Newton missed last week’s victory over the Cardinals as backup Kyle Allen starred, and Newton won’t play this week against the Texans.
Newton tried to play through the injury, knowing he wasn’t 100 percent. He said he could not even jog during pregame warmups before the season opener.
“This is where I got in my own way,” said Newton, who had offseason shoulder surgery. “Because I thought automatically, I’ve got to play Week One. I can’t let my fans down.”
It took a failed fourth-and-1 play from the Tampa Bay 2-yard line in Week Two, when Newton couldn’t push off and Christian McCaffrey had to take a direct snap, for Newton to realize he couldn’t do what he wanted to do. That’s when Newton said he told coach Ron Rivera and General Manager Marty Hurney he needed time to heal.
“I needed to see that me at 80 percent was not OK,” Newton said. “I realize it’s OK to take time.
“I’ve just got to get right.”
Newton completed 56.2 of his passes for 572 yards with no touchdowns and an interception in the first two games. He didn’t look like himself, but, because of his shoulder injury, he didn’t look like himself much of last season either.
When healthy, Newton expects to return to form.
“If I’m able to get the time off for me to heal and get back to 100 percent,” Newton said, “then I have no doubt in my mind everything that we want as a team can still be accomplished.”
