Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett announced today that quarterback Tony Romo, who suffered a back injury during the third quarter of Monday night's loss to the Washington Redskins, will undergo further testing on the injury today, according to a report from David Helman of Fox Sports Southwest.
"We'll get the tests today, but we anticipate him being ready to go," Garrett said in an interview with 105.3 FM The Fan, per Helman. "When we left the stadium last night, he seemed like he was OK, and we'll get the tests today to verify everything."
Romo suffered the injury when a Redskins player kneed him in the back while sacking him in the third quarter. He left the game and went to the locker room, but eventually returned with 1:52 remaining in regulation.
"Obviously he was cleared to go back into the game last night, so we felt good enough about that when the initial X-Rays were negative," Garrett said. "But they want to do some more extensive tests. We'll find out more as the day goes on."
Romo was given a painkilling injection by the team's medical staff, which allowed him to return to the field.
"My experience is that if I was able to play and come back in at any point, I was able to go," Romo said. "Obviously we will look at things tomorrow and see what it comes to."
The nature of the injury is significant for Romo and the Cowboys - in Week 16 last season, against the very same Redskins team, Romo suffered a herniated disc that required season-ending surgery and led to consistent speculation throughout the offseason of his possible inability to continue playing in the league.
Despite this, Garrett sounded positive when offering the prognosis for his injured quarterback.
"We anticipate him getting some tests done today just to verify the tests we did last night - both before he went back in the game and then afterwards. We'll see where he is," Garrett said.
"Tony's a tough guy, we know that - he's physically tough, he's mentality tough. Once he's cleared to play, he's our quarterback and he goes back in."
