[Kansas City.com] Less than 24 hours after coach Dick Vermeil said Freddie Mitchell was turning around his NFL life, Mitchell was gone from training camp because of a knee injury.

Mitchell, who was acquired last month after a tumultuous season in Philadelphia, suffered the injury running a route late Saturday and is expected to have arthroscopic surgery in his right knee today in Kansas City.

The best-case scenario would have Mitchell back in 2 1/2 weeks, near the end of the Chiefs’ stay in River Falls.

“Now that’s just a coach talking,” Vermeil said. “A doctor may feel differently after he gets in there and looks at it. But he does not think it’s serious.”

Chiefs president/general manager Carl Peterson said initial reports suggested a slight tear in the lateral meniscus.