Turk Wharton is healthy, relieved, and ready to play

And that preparation is paying off.

At 12 weeks out from the surgery, Wharton’s doctors told him he was progressing at 85 percent growth (the bones fused will turn into one bone over time). Then, Monday of this week, Wharton went in for the appointment that he hoped would finally deliver good news.

“Monday we got a CT scan at like 8 a.m., and they let me know by like 10,” he smiled. He was back at 100 percent and cleared to go.

He practiced this week, and the Panthers will now see how his body responds to that physical activity before deciding what to do next in relation to Sunday’s Week 6 game against the Philadelphia Eagles. The possibility of returning him to the defensive line, though, already has defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero excited.

“Turk is one of our best football players when he’s available, and so once he is ready and once he is in there, we’re going to deploy him the same way,” said Evero. “A lot of the time, when you come back off of injury and off an extended time of not playing football, you can’t just resume your normal workload too. So there’s probably going to be an acclimation period for him as well, and a snap count, a pitch count, and all those things. But I mean, he’s a hell of a football player, and he’s certainly going to help us.”