{"id":330833,"date":"2025-08-31T09:44:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-31T09:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/330833\/"},"modified":"2025-08-31T09:44:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-31T09:44:11","slug":"ikem-ekwonu-underwent-appendectomy-considered-day-to-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/330833\/","title":{"rendered":"Ikem Ekwonu Underwent Appendectomy, Considered &#8216;Day To Day&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Panthers left tackle\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/E\/EkwoIk00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-30_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Ikem Ekwonu<\/a> had an emergency appendectomy last Sunday, according to an announcement by head coach\u00a0Dave Canales\u00a0(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.panthers.com\/news\/ikem-ekwonu-status-up-in-the-air-after-appendectomy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">via team writer Darin Gantt<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cdn.profootballrumors.com\/files\/2025\/04\/USATSI_24503902-scaled.jpg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-362202 size-medium\" style=\"border: 2px solid #000000;margin: 15px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/USATSI_24503902-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\"  \/><\/a>Ekwonu was experiencing stomach pain and a consultation with team doctors led to surgery. Any procedure this close to the season will naturally put a player\u2019s Week 1 status under question.<\/p>\n<p>Canales said that Ekwonu would be \u201cday-to-day, all the way up until the game,\u201d a September 7 visit to Jacksonville.<\/p>\n<p>Recovery from an appendectomy can vary, per Gantt: \u201cThen-Steelers safety <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/F\/FitzMi00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-30_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Minkah Fitzpatrick<\/a> was back on the field eight days after a procedure in 2022, while Packers left tackle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/B\/BakhDa00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-30_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">David Bakhtiari<\/a> missed three games after his during that same season.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ekwonu, 24, is entering his fourth NFl season after the Panthers made him the No. 6 overall pick in 2022. He immediately took over as Carolina\u2019s left tackle and started 46 games in a row to open his NFL career. He then missed two games with an ankle issue in 2024, but recovered to finish the season. The North Carolina State product has grown in each year and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.profootballrumors.com\/2025\/04\/panthers-to-exercise-lt-ikem-ekwonus-fifth-year-option\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">the Panthers picked up his fifth-year option in April<\/a>. Like many members of his draft class, Ekwonu is angling for a long-term extension from his team.<\/p>\n<p>If Ekwonu misses time in the regular season, the Panthers have two primary candidates to replace him on the blind side.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/C\/ChriBr00.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-30_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Brady Christensen<\/a>, a 2021 third-round pick, is listed as the backup left tackle on the team\u2019s depth chart. He replaced Ekwonu during his brief absence last year. Veteran <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pro-football-reference.com\/players\/N\/NijmYo01.htm?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.profootballrumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-08-30_pfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Yosh Nijman<\/a>\u00a0is another option. He started three games at right tackle in Carolina last year and 22 at left tackle in his previous three seasons in Green Bay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Panthers left tackle\u00a0Ikem Ekwonu had an emergency appendectomy last Sunday, according to an announcement by head coach\u00a0Dave Canales\u00a0(via&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330834,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2075],"tags":[22660,235,260,2567,7,7783,6,236,22659],"class_list":{"0":"post-330833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-carolina-panthers","8":"tag-brady-christensen","9":"tag-carolina","10":"tag-carolina-panthers","11":"tag-carolinapanthers","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-ikem-ekwonu","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-panthers","16":"tag-yosh-nijman"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115122737253714892","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330833\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}