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[/vc_raw_html][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner]A few minutes after practice began Monday morning, Carolina Panthers defensive tackle Star Lotulelei slowly walked up the small hill leading into the Bank of America Stadium practice fields. Alongside head trainer Ryan Vermillion, Lotulelei was still favoring his right foot.

Once inside, the Panthers’ most important run stuffer spent the portion of practice open to the media working on the side with Vermillion. It was the most he’s done in front of reporters since he suffered a stress reaction during the first week of training camp.

Since then, the Panthers have held out hope Loutlelei would be back for the season opener. When asked about his chances of playing Sunday, he’d only say:

“I can talk to you about Jacksonville, that’s it.”

But he did offer: “We’ve got to get through this, got to make sure it’s 100 percent before I come back because it’s a long season.”

Later, coach Ron Rivera repeated that line:

“If it’s sore, then we’re not going to risk it. We’ve got to be smart. It’s a long season. We’ve got 17 weeks left. So we can’t be hasty with guys.”

If Lotuleli does make it back in time, he likely won’t spend much time on the field. Even if his foot is feeling fine, the 320 pounder probably won’t be in ideal shape to take his regular dose of snaps. Still, the Panthers hope.

“The plan is to see how he is [Tuesday] morning and see how he reacts to the work,” Rivera said. “If he reacts well, we’ll take it up another notch tomorrow with the trainers and then we’ll see how things go Wednesday morning.”[vc_row_inner no_margin=”true”][vc_column_inner width=”1/1″][vc_raw_html]

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