Panthers QB Cam Newton is out for an undetermined length of time after rolling his truck Tuesday near Bank of America stadium in Charlotte. Newton was transported to Carolinas Medical Center with what were termed non-life-threatening injuries, which turned out to be two transverse process fractures of the lower back.

What's a transverse process?

Your back is made up of a stack of bones called vertebrae. Those vertebrae are complicated little suckers responsible for protecting the spinal cord, providing the structure of the back, and allowing you to bend and twist your back.

Vertebra as seen from above. The transverse processes are the parts sticking off the sides. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

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Transverse processes serve as attachment points for some of the million or so muscles and ligaments of the back. The good thing about the back being so complicated and having so many bones, muscles and ligaments is that if one is compromised, there's plenty more to compensate.

The injury

Transverse process fractures can happen from a direct blow to the back, or more commonly (in MVCs, anyway) from suddenly bending the back in a sideways manner. If you think about a rollover, it's not difficult to imagine that's exactly how you'd be moving as your car tumbles.

It takes huge amounts of energy to break a transverse process, and that particular fracture is one that's very frequently associated with internal injuries.

Newton's mechanism of injury (a fancy medical term for how he was hurt) was significant, so he would have been subject to the full battery of usual trauma testing — screening bloodwork, imaging to assess for internal injuries, and an overnight stay for observation.

The good news is Newton's fracture was not associated with other injuries, and should have a fairly straightforward rehab process — rest, pain control and possibly a back brace to limit movement while he heals along with gradual return to full range of motion with the assistance of physical therapy and trainers.

While a transverse process fracture is technically an injury to the spine, it is not an injury to the spinal cord — the two are nowhere near one another (relatively speaking). Transverse process fractures are also considered mechanically stable, meaning the fracture shouldn't affect movement or the ability to bear weight, except obviously as limited by pain.

This is the same injury Dallas QB Tony Romo suffered in a late October game, causing him to only miss one game. At the time, Jerry Jones pointed out it's more a matter of pain control than anything, and the same applies here.

The upshot for Newton is that he'll be back when he's able. Could be a week, could be next season. This one is tough to assign a timeline.

Jo Innes is a real-life doctor and contributor for Sporting News. Follow her on Twitter @JoNana