CHICAGO -- After struggling all year to make the playoffs with star receiver Sterling Sharpe, the Green Bay Packers must now learn to play without him, maybe forever.
Sharpe, a five-time Pro Bowl selection, must undergo surgery to fuse the top two vertebrae of his neck after incidents that knocked him out of the last two regular-season games. He caught one touchdown pass Dec. 18 against the Atlanta Falcons and three Dec. 24 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but suffered what appeared to be "stingers," or "pinched nerves."
Although a magnetic resonance imaging after the first injury revealed nothing to keep him out of the second game, further tests in Indianapolis revealed an abnormal loosening of the first and second cervical vertebrae that was limiting the spinal cord's ability to send signals and retrieve them from limbs.
"Certainly any cervical spine injury on a pro football player is career-threatening," said team physician Patrick McKenzie.
Sharpe, 28, will require eight months to recover from surgery, and a decision on his future will be made at that time, the Packers said. In the best case, medical experts said, Sharpe will walk away with decreased neck flexibility -- a limitation for a wide receiver. If his neck heals properly, physicians may clear him to play within a year or two.
"At that time, the decision to play will be left up to Sharpe," said Dr. Robert L. Macdonald, a neurosurgeon at the University of Chicago Health Sciences Center. "In the majority of these cases, we wouldn't let a patient play football."
Medical experts said cervical instability is both rare and dangerous.
"Slipping neck ligaments can create pressure on the spinal cord," said Dr. Joel Press, who treats football players at the Center for Spine, Sports and Occupational Rehabilitation at the Northwestern University-affiliated Rehabilitation Institute.
In an intensely physical sport such as football, an athlete with the condition runs a higher risk of paralysis, Press said.
The Packers open the playoffs Saturday in Green Bay against the Detroit Lions.
"Losing Sterling is like Detroit losing a Barry Sanders," said Packers defensive end Reggie White.
In his last six games, Sharpe caught 43 passes for 574 yards and 13 touchdowns.