Packers' Pro Bowl Safety Collins Out for Season with Injury

Green Bay Packers Pro Bowl safety Nick Collins, a key part of the team's Super Bowl victory last season, will miss the rest of the National Football League campaign with a neck injury, the team said on Monday.

Collins, a three-times Pro Bowl selection who was taken by the Packers in the second round of the 2005 draft, suffered the injury in Sunday's 30-23 win over the Carolina Panthers.

It's tough. It's something you never get used to as a coach, Packers head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters, adding that it was too early in the evaluation process to know whether Collins will need surgery.

Collins was carried off the field on a stretcher during the fourth quarter after injuring himself while trying to tackle Panthers running back Jonathan Stewart.

The 28-year-old started in every regular season game in the past three years and had a 37-yard interception return for a touchdown in Green Bay's Super Bowl victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers last season.