FRISCO, Texas – The wait for news about Dez Bryant's knee came to an end on Wednesday afternoon, as the Cowboys finally received the results of his long-discussed MRI.
"We got the results of the MRI back, and he has a slight hairline fracture in one of the bones of his knee," said Cowboys coach Jason Garrett. "What I've been told is that it's a day-to-day, week-to-week injury."
While Garrett might not have had the prognosis on Wednesday morning when he first spoke to reporters, his projection for Bryant's status didn't change in the afternoon. Garrett said the timeline for recovery varies from player to player. He also told the San Francisco media that he was hopeful Bryant could play this weekend.
"We've had players with this kind injury who missed no time in the past, and other players who have missed up to a week, two or more than that," Garrett said. "We'll take it day-by-day and we'll see how he does when he comes in tomorrow – see how he feels and we'll make our evaluations there as we go forward."
Bryant didn't practice on Wednesday afternoon, but he was briefly seen visiting the locker room during the media's interview session. Garrett said he got his MRI in the morning, and he looked good going through a workout at the team facility after that.
"He got his workout in around noon today, and it looked like he was moving around pretty good," he said. "We'll come in tomorrow and see how he feels."
Garrett has said on numerous occasions – including at his Wednesday morning press conference – that he doesn't have a firm rule about whether a player has to practice before he can play. With that in mind, it's a good bet that Bryant's status will be a question mark as Sunday's game against San Francisco inches closer.
What his workload looks like the rest of the week will be decided by the athletic training staff, using feedback from Bryant as the week goes along.
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Added Garrett: "What we do is they come in, they go to the trainers and say 'Hey, this is how I'm feeling.' This is what we're going to decide to do in practice today: you're going to have a full practice, you're going to have a limited practice, you're not going to practice. And then we'll keep making our determinations based on the work that they do have."
Garrett declined to elaborate on the medical process, or why it took the better part of three days for the Cowboys to receive a prognosis on the knee, saying only that Bryant had his knees evaluated after the game, followed by an MRI on Wednesday morning.
Bryant himself weighed in on the injury on Twitter, as he has been known to do. When a fan told the All-Pro receiver he was glad the injury wasn't serious, he agreed.
What that means for Sunday remains to be seen, as Garrett reiterated. But the fact that Bryant's availability for Week 4 is even a possibility can only be taken as a positive at this point.
"We have this information now with Dez, and we're going to take his situation day-by-day," Garrett said. "We'll evaluate his status for the game as the week goes on."
