There’s more bad news for the Cowboys defense.
They’ve already lost defensive end Tyrone Crawford for the season and defensive tackle Jay Ratliff for the indefinite future and now they’ll also be without defensive end Anthony Spencer for a while. Spencer aggravated a bone bruise in his left knee as the Cowboys opened up training camp, an injury that the Cowboys didn’t think was severe although Spencer admitted surgery was a possibility.
Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com reports that it is more than just a possibility. Archer reports that Spencer will have surgery on the knee later this week. The recovery time is expected to be between two-to-four weeks for the player who has received the Cowboys’ franchise tag in each of the last two seasons.
That’s obviously enough time for Spencer to get well without missing any of the regular season, but that’s probably a limited amount of relief for a team that saw their defense totally gutted by injuries last season. With three players expected to be major parts of the defensive line already ailing, the Cowboys will likely be keeping their fingers crossed that everyone heals as quickly as possible and that they can go a few days this summer without anyone joining the already injured in the trainer’s room.
UPDATE 2:56 p.m. ET: Nick Eatman of the team’s website confirms Spencer will have surgery and pegs the recovery time at three weeks.