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Terry Glenn Knee Injury Serious, Could Miss Season

Terry Glenn rushed back from knee surgery and has now suffered a serious setback that could end his season.

Dallas Cowboys receiver Terry Glenn will miss Sunday’s opener against the New York Giants — and possibly a lot more.

Glenn, 33, told ESPN’s Ed Werder on Friday that he has torn cartilage that will require surgery and is deliberating two options: Having season-ending knee surgery, or having a procedure to remove the damaged tissue so that he can potentially return in three to four weeks. The latter option, however, would not be a permanent solution and could expose him to the risk of severely hurting the knee again.

“I want to play this year, and I really feel I have chance so I’m really leaning toward taking the [damaged] piece out and trying to play this year even though I’m risking the rest of my career by doing that,” Glenn said Friday night. “I think that’s what I’m going to do. I’m not sure, but I’ve played 12 years and don’t have a lot of years left. I want to win now, and I think we have a chance to win now. My Super Bowl chances are running out, so that’s what I will probably do. But I know there’s a great percentage risk that I could do that, ruin my knee, never play again and have to limp the rest of my life.”

Glenn missed all four preseason games after micro-fracture surgery Aug. 1 to remove a cyst from the back of his right kneecap. Coach Wade Phillips said the latest injury came in practice two days ago and “was not related to the original injury,” but Glenn disputed that. “Anybody saying this injury is not related to the other injury — BS,” he said. “This would never have happened if I hadn’t been hurt already.”

However, Glenn said that he doesn’t hold the team’s medical or training staffs responsible for the injury.
“I don’t blame anybody for this but myself,” he said. “It didn’t feel the way it should have felt, but the pressure and the hype of the season starting really got to me, and I was told I could not injure my knee further by going out and just running on it. I wanted to win the game for my teammates because that means a lot to me. But it wasn’t ready and now I’ve injured it even more.”

Cowboys players say they have not been told the severity of Glenn’s knee injury, but they expect his absence to be lengthy. Quarterback Tony Romo was attempting to contact Glenn after Friday’s practice. “This is a very big loss for us,” Romo told ESPN. “You can’t replace Terry Glenn. He has special abilities and you’re just not going to be able to replace him. But I have a lot of confidence in our young receivers. I’ve been throwing to them all summer. I really think Sam Hurd will step to the plate.”

Truly a shame. And Glenn’s almost certainly right that this is an aggravation of the existing injury rather than a new one.

Football is a brutal game and the pressure to play hurt is strong. One would think, though, that trainers and coaching staffs would take a go-slow approach to recovery. The number of elite players rushed back too soon only to set themselves back is astonishing.

The Cowboys are expected to be a playoff team and they could have absorbed the loss of Glenn for two or three games until he was near 100 percent. They need him for the stretch drive.

 
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