Englewood, CO (My Sportsbook) - Denver Broncos cornerback Willie Middlebrooks, who suffered a hamstring injury in Sunday's game against Carolina, is expected to be out of action for about four weeks.

Middlebrooks, a first-round pick by Denver in 2001, had the best game of his career on October 3 at Tampa Bay, when he recovered a fumble and sacked Buccaneers quarterback Brad Johnson in a 16-13 victory.

Middlebrooks dealt with a series of nagging ankle and hamstring injuries throughout his first three seasons in the NFL, but was fully healthy this year and saw the most substantial playing time of his career during the first four games of this season.

"It's unfortunate because he's had this hamstring injury before," Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan said. "It's been tough on him because it's lingered. Hopefully it will only be four weeks with a partial tear, but he's worked through this before and hopefully he can get back and help us."

The Broncos did get cornerback Lenny Walls back for Sunday's 20-17 win over the Carolina Panthers. Walls took his first snaps since dislocating his shoulder on during a September 12 win over the Kansas City Chiefs.

Denver is off to a 4-1 start.