Chandler Zavala displaying ‘positive’ signs following neck injury

Panthers HC Frank Reich provided an encouraging update on rookie G Chandler Zavala, who exited Sunday’s loss to the Lions with a neck injury.

Some very good news has come out of an otherwise solemn Sunday for the Carolina Panthers.

Before taking questions from reporters this afternoon, head coach Frank Reich provided an encouraging update on left guard Chandler Zavala—who was carted off the field during yesterday’s loss to the Detroit Lions with a neck injury. Reich confirmed that Zavala traveled back home with the team after being discharged from a Detroit hospital last night and stated that all signs, thus far, are “positive” for the 24-year-old.

He also, based on early indications, said the injury is a “really bad stinger.”

That would, given the scary nature of the Week 5 scene, be an extremely promising diagnosis for Zavala. The rookie, following a run in the first quarter, laid face down and motionless until trainers tended to him.

Zavala would be placed in a stretcher and moved to a cart, where he’d then give the crowd at Ford Field a much-welcomed thumbs up on the way out.

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