IRVING, Texas -- Tony Romo has been labeled "day-by-day" with his back contusion, according to Cowboys coach Jason Garrett.
Garrett spoke to the media Wednesday after the team received Romo's CT scans on the injury he suffered Monday night against the Redskins. The injury will be enough to keep the quarterback out of practice Wednesday, but his availability the rest of the week remains to be seen.
"It's a day-by-day thing with Tony, we'll see how he handles the pain and we'll see how functional he is as the week goes on," Garrett said. "We'll see what his availability is for this ball game."
It isn't exactly unusual for Romo to miss a Wednesday practice – that was his schedule for the duration of the Cowboys' six-game winning streak, as part of his rehab from his back surgery in December. With the short week to prepare for Arizona, though, this won't work as a typical Wednesday.
The Cowboys have a less-intensive practice today, which Romo will miss. Garrett was optimistic the quarterback would be able to improve his workload going forward.
"We don't anticipate him doing a whole lot, but as the week goes on hopefully he progresses and can handle the pain and can function," he said.
That goes along with what Cowboys owner/general manager said on 105.3 The Fan on Wednesday morning. Jones said there was no medical issue with the injury that would hold Romo out this weekend – but rather it's a matter of Romo's ability to handle the pain.
"There's nothing to his injury that technically won't function. This is a function of pain tolerance," Jones said. "But it's a serious issue that you could look at people that have had a similar type injury and they haven't played the next week, so that would cause you some concern about him playing."
Garrett repeated that the injury is not related to Romo's herniated disc or his cyst removal from last season, but rather a byproduct of playing football – "he got hit."
[embeddedad0]While Romo recuperates, the Cowboys will lean on backup Brandon Weeden to handle the lion's share of practice reps – again not uncommon, given Romo's usual absences at Wednesday practices.
"We anticipate Weeden getting work, we anticipate Dustin Vaughan getting work, we don't anticipate Romo doing much," Garrett said. "We'll see how he feels with his rehab today and how he feels tomorrow and make those decisions as we go."
