Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Julius Thomas could miss up to five weeks of the 2015 season due to a finger injury.
The 27-year-old is scheduled to undergo surgery to repair a tendon in his finger, although he will receive a second opinion before he rules himself out of the first month of the campaign.
General manager Dave Caldwell told reporters: "My understanding is that if he does need it, it only pushes him back a couple of weeks in terms of his return time. He was going to be 50-50 for the opener. We would hope if everything went well it should be four weeks from the surgery where he'd be back to full strength.
"He had a follow-up appointment today and just had some discomfort in there and they re-did some tests and it showed some loosening of the ligament.
"He could probably play with it, but if we let it go and it's still loose, then we're at week four or five in the season and he needs surgery. It would be us being aggressive. Our most realistic case is he has surgery and he's back for Indy."
Thomas joined the Jaguars in the off-season on a five-year deal after spending the first four seasons of his career with the Denver Broncos.
Simon Sinclair
