DALLAS – It's looking increasingly possible the Cowboys may have to prepare for the final two weeks of the regular season without Sean Lee.
Lee was one of dozens of Cowboys players to make the team's annual Christmas hospital visits. As he visited patients at Dallas' Children's Medical Center, Lee addressed the neck injury that sidelined him for Sunday's loss to Green Bay.
"My situation is, like I said, week-to-week. We have to do more tests with the doctors, and until they clear me I won't be in there, and that's the key," he said. "Hopefully, they can clear me fairly soon, but they have to test that and figure that out."
The Cowboys' middle linebacker suffered the injury, which was originally classified as a neck strain, on the first play of the team's 45-28 loss to Chicago on Dec. 9. Lee attempted to play through the pain, but was sidelined after halftime.
A CT scan on the injury didn't reveal any structural damage, allowing Lee to practice Wednesday and Thursday and it seemed likely he would play against Green Bay. But an MRI conducted late last week returned results that scratched Lee from the lineup against the Packers [embedded_ad]
"It's one of those deals where, until my neck is 100 percent stable and the injury I have is 100 percent stable, I'm at risk being on the field," Lee said. "For me, I don't know what the timetable is."
A prognosis of "week-to-week" isn't typically a season-ender, but the calendar could have a huge impact on whether Lee is able to return. The Cowboys have just two games left on the schedule, depending on whether they do enough to reach the postseason.
"It's getting close to the end of the year, and obviously we only have so much time left. And so, obviously I'd like to be back as soon as possible," Lee said. "But I don't know exactly when that is because the doctors have to give me a timetable and figure out when they can clear me. Hopefully I can be back, but right now we still have to go week-to-week."
That type of response prompted the question of whether he thought he'd need surgery on the neck – a prospect he deemed unlikely. With more tests left to run with team doctors, Lee said he hoped to have more answers later in the week.
"I don't know for sure. Like I said, I'll be tested in the next couple of days, and I'll know for sure after I talk to the doctors," he said.
