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IRVING, Texas** – The neck injury that Sean Lee described as "similar to a stinger" shouldn't keep the linebacker out of Sunday's game.
Lee said he's feeling better every day, and while the Cowboys haven't practiced yet in full pads and Lee's still a limited practice participant, he believes he'll be ready to go this week.
"You have to just kind of rehab and go out there and play," he said. "You've got to watch it, but I'm going to play through it."
Lee sustained the injury on the first play of the game against the Bears and tried to play through it, but eventually he was unable to keep going with the muscle pain in his neck.
"I got hit on that toss play, when I slipped and tried to kind of hit his leg," he said. "Basically, it's one of those deals where it locked up on me for about a minute and then it would relax, but every time I hit it would get worse and worse and got to a point where the neck was so locked up I couldn't do my job anymore."
Lee said he felt the pain about three or four more times on tackles throughout the game to the point that he couldn't play effectively anymore. More padding around the neck area is an option for Lee going forward. [embedded_ad]
Rather than the typical stinger, which is really a pinched nerve that causes numbness and weakness down the arm, Lee said this injury is more muscle related and the pain and stiffness is located specifically around the neck. He described it more as a muscle spasm, and the more he hit it, the more it locked up.
"It was just kind of bad luck," he said. "The first play of the game I got hit directly in the head, right on top of the head, and it busted me pretty good. Tried to play through it a couple times and it got worse, because I played through it. It's one of those deals, now I should be all right."
The neck injury comes immediately after Lee missed two games with a hamstring injury. Despite missing the past two and a half games, Lee stills leads the team in total tackles and interceptions, according to coaches' film.
