Dontari Poe had surgery for herniated disc, will miss all of Chiefs training camp

The start to the season is in doubt for NT Dontari Poe, who underwent surgery for a herniated disc. Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder told reporters at Chiefs camp on Wednesday that Poe had back problems during camp and then hurt his back again the first week of July.

He will miss all of training camp and it seems like a good possibility he misses part of the season, too.

"I think he stands a reasonable chance [to return] the early part of the season," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said, "whether it's the beginning or somewhere early in the season for his return. You just have to see how things recover."

Jaye Howard will replace Poe, according to Reid. He also mentioned Mike DeVito.

Here's what Chiefs trainer Rick Burkholder said about the injury:

"If you guys remember back in the minicamp Dontari hurt his back. That was back on the 2nd of June. We shut him down for a few days. He went and was referred to KU Med [doctor] who then got him to have an epidural injection in his back. He had one on the 5th of June. We rested him. He made it through the end of minicamp. He was fine and asymptomatic. We got him a second epidural injection right on the 19th of June right before he left.

"He was home training and doing great and then he hurt his back again. So we brought him back to KC and he saw the doctor and got another MRI. At that time it was determined he had a herniated disc in his back.

"Our team and his people decided to send him back to Memphis to Dr. Kevin Foley who operated on his back on the 15th of July. He hurt his back on the 8th the second time that he hurt it. He had a successful surgery. He had that disc removed. He's in Memphis right now. He's not doing a whole lot of rehab or treatment. He's resting but he's doing great.

"He's going to be up here with us on Friday. He'll have extensive treatment and rehab and I've told the coaches that we won't talk about anymore activity with Dontari until after we get out of training camp. For training camp purposes, he'll be with me. But he'll be in meetings and all that kind of stuff. He's recovering fine."

Here is the full Poe timeline:

June 2: Poe initially hurts his back

June 5: First epidural injection

June 19: Second epidural injection

July 8: Poe hurts his back again

July 15: Poe undergoes surgery