CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- With the slightest bit of sadness in his voice, Carolina Panthers defensive end Jason Peter admitted his latest neck injury might end his NFL career.

Peter was placed on injured reserve on Thursday.

"I'm just dealing with having to sit out the rest of the season, that's tough enough on me right now," Peter said Thursday. "But it's a possibility that I would have to have another fusion done and that would for sure put me out of football."

Peter, Carolina's first-round draft pick in 1998, has had four operations on his neck and shoulders in the past two years. The latest procedure, which he had last winter, fused two vertebrae and removed a disc in an effort to prevent the pinched nerves he suffered constantly.

He had considered retirement after that operation, but returned to the field this season and had 13 tackles in six games. After missing two games because of pain in his neck, doctors told him he's suffering from a degenerative condition in his spine and advised him to stop playing football or risk permanent injury.

Because of a family history with neck injuries -- his younger brother recovered but never played football again after breaking his neck in a pool accident in 1994 -- Peter said he had no problem shutting it down for the year.

"Seeing my brother... certainly he was fortunate enough to recover, but there's no guarantee that if that happened to me I would recover," he said. "So obviously that runs through my mind and no amount of fame or my love for playing the game is worth that."

It's been his love for the football that has kept Peter coming back each year after injuries shortened his first three seasons.

He first injured his neck his rookie year, causing him to miss two games and undergo his first neck operation. He missed seven games the next year with an injured shoulder and needed surgery to repair it.

Then he re-injured his neck in October of last season, suffering a bruised nerve when he was hit awkwardly during a light practice in which players didn't wear pads. The injury caused numbness in his left arm and forced him to miss two games.

His neck worsened a month later when he suffered a serious stinger, resulting in the last operation.

In 3½-seasons, the 27-year-old Peter has been limited to 36 games while undergoing too many operations to count.

"Since I've got here, every year I've just been trying to claw my way back to where I was," he said. "I don't believe I'm the player I was in college just because I'm always trying to scratch my way back to that starting point and just before I get there, something happens."

Carolina defensive back Mike Minter, who played with Peter at Nebraska, sounded as if his longtime teammate would not be back on the field again.

"I know he loved the game so I know how tough that is for him, all you can say is good luck with whatever else you do outside of football," Minter said. "Football doesn't last that long."

Other Panthers applauded Peter's decision to willingly end his own season.

"I'm just happy he's not going to go out there and try to play on it," defensive end Jay Williams said. "I know how he's probably feeling like his career is over, but I would rather walk away from this game instead of spending the rest of my life rolling around in a wheelchair."

That's essentially what Peter said. His family has been sensitive to the issue since the summer Damian Peter spent in a hospital bed after his diving accident. Damian, the youngest of three football-playing brothers, was headed to Notre Dame that fall on a football scholarship before the accident.

Because Jason had the opportunity to reach the NFL, and his brother did not, it's made this setback a little easier for him.

"I can look at myself in the mirror and say if it was to come to an end, you can walk away," he said. "When you bring my brother into it, he never got that opportunity to play. So I feel fortunate, I got to play an entire college career, at least four years in the NFL and that's not too bad."

A third brother, Christian, plays for the Indianapolis Colts.