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The opener shows up, and as the days get closer to the start of the Dolphins’ regular season, linebacker Joey Porter becomes more afraid he won’t be part of the team’s much-hyped New Beginning. He’s worried he’s closer to a career ending.

On Monday, the Dolphins spent some practice time working out for that opening game against the Jets. Porter missed the practice, again. He was visiting a doctor, again, trying to get a fix on a strange back ailment that has him, and the whole team, fearing he’s going to miss several games of this season, including the opener.

”He’s motivated, but he’s kind of upset that he can’t be there,” Said Jason Ferguson, a Dolphins defensive veteran. “And he’s worried he’s not going to be there that first day.”

The Dolphins are handling it by making plans for the extended absence of a player who has had trouble practicing on consecutive days and hasn’t been pain-free for almost a month. So on Monday, the Miami team put Charlie Anderson back in the starting weak-side linebacker spot. And they are experimenting with rookie defensive end Phillip Merling as the backup, a contingency that has the feel of a long-range answer to a long-range problem.

Meanwhile Porter is looking at a career that seems to be falling from his grasp even as he makes a courageous attempt to hold on. So Joey continues to search for a concrete answer to his mysterious back ailment. He has considered shots, surgery, anything to assure a part of Miami’s New Beginning. But unfortunately, it looks like the team will have to start without him.