Dallas Cowboys rookie corner back Morris Claiborne is going to miss more time after an MRI showed a sprained MCL. He is expected to miss about a week which puts his status for the Cowboys first preseason game with the Oakland Raiders in jeopardy.
Claiborne said he first felt the soreness in his left knee when he got up on Wednesday morning but continued to practice through it. Finally on Friday the team shut him down and took a closer look at his knee, luckily only finding a sprain.
Missing a week’s worth of training camp doesn’t seem to be a big issue but Claiborne also missed all of the off-season OTA’s and mini camps because of his surgically repaired wrist, so he’s well behind the learning curve. Claiborne does say he’s getting the mental reps he needs by standing with the coaches making sure he knows his assignments but there is no substitute for playing. The only way to get better is to actually go through what you would in a game situation and Claiborne has now missed all but a few days of live practices this off-season.
It’s a good thing the Cowboys found the injury now instead of a few days or weeks down the road where more damage could’ve been done forcing Claiborne to miss more time. But this is not good news. Dallas badly needed to upgrade its secondary and they did that with the signing of Brandon Carr and drafting Claiborne, but his injury coupled with Mike Jenkins‘ shoulder still not being ready leaves the Cowboys shorthanded at the corner spot once again.
The bigger question is if Morris Claiborne is injury prone? A better word to use would be fragile. Its too early to say that since he only missed one game in college because of a concussion, but the Cowboys have to hope this is the last of the setbacks for the rookie.
He needs to be learning on the field, not in the meeting rooms. The Dallas Cowboys need Morris Claiborne healthy, fast.
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I agree with Ben’s rant. The Cowboys seemed to be cursed.