For the record, count Chris Kuper among the Broncos players invited to the Pro Bowl.

The right guard opted out, though, because of impending surgery to repair what turned out to be another break in his lower left fibula.

The break is in the same area where Kuper suffered a severe left ankle dislocation during the final game of the 2011 regular season.

The initial injury, which occurred Jan. 1, 2012, in a 7-3 loss against the Kansas City Chiefs, was more serious. The dislocation caused multiple breaks in the fibula and several ligament tears. During surgery, a plate was inserted with several screws to help repair the damage.

Not everything about the surgery took, one reason Kuper this time will be operated on by Dr. Bob Anderson in Charlotte, N.C.

“This one is less traumatic,” Kuper said. “It doesn’t have all the other things wrong in there, so I’m optimistic it will be a normal recovery.”

The longest-tenured member of the Broncos’ offensive line, Kuper, 30, wound up starting only six games, counting the playoff loss to Baltimore, this season because of various injuries.

Still, Kuper had demonstrated enough during his previous five seasons as a starter to become a second alternate for the AFC Pro Bowl team. When the two starting guards, New England’s Logan Mankins and Baltimore’s Marshall Yanda, were unable to participate in the Pro Bowl, the first call went to first alternate Richie Icognito of the Miami Dolphins. Kuper then got his chance to play in his first Pro Bowl.

When Kuper was forced to decline, Broncos left guard Zane Beadles went to Hawaii in Kuper’s stead. The 2013 Pro Bowl game, which has coach John Fox and his Broncos staff leading the AFC team that includes six Broncos players, will be played Sunday in Aloha Stadium.

That Kuper had to skip the Pro Bowl capped the most difficult season of his seven-year NFL career. First he missed the entire 2012 offseason program to recover from his ankle/leg injury. Then after he returned for training camp, he broke his left forearm during practice, an injury that did not allow him to play guard through the first five regular-season games.

In his third game at right guard, Nov. 4 at Cincinnati, Kuper reinjured his left ankle. At the time, X-rays did not reveal a fracture. Kuper sat out the next two games and returned to play in two more games. But in the days before the Broncos’ game at Oakland, the pain in Kuper’s left ankle/lower left leg inflamed and he was scratched from the Thursday night, Dec. 6 game against the Raiders.

X-rays this time revealed a break where the plate — which had been holding the fibula — was shattered.

Kuper missed the final four regular-season games, with the exception of a couple of snaps on the extra-point and field-goal teams in the regular-season finale. After a first-round playoff bye, Kuper started for the Broncos in the second playoff round.

Footnote. The Broncos signed cornerback Mario Butler and wide receiver Greg Orton to future contracts. Both players spent time on the Broncos practice squad during the 2012 season.