After losing one of his prime years to a battle with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, Travis Frederick may be close to returning.
The Cowboys’ All-Pro center is expected to participate in at least some of the team’s offseason program, David Moore of the Dallas Morning News reports.
“Now it’s just about working in the weight room to try to continue to increase my strength and work with the team in the offseason as far as conditioning and getting myself ready come March and April,” Frederick said, via Moore.
Although Frederick has done light running, he has not been cleared to sprint yet, Moore notes. While tabbing his upper-body strength at 90 to 95 percent of what it once was, Frederick also is not sporting the limp he did during last season.
“Once you get to a certain point then you’re regaining your strength that you lost vs. the electrical connection that you lost,’’ Frederick said. “I certainly hit that point in my upper body, which is actually a good thing when you hit that point where you slow down because that means the electrical connection is there and now it’s just building back any strength that you’ve lost. We’re at a point that’s very passable and very usable.
“As far as lower [body] goes, I’m at the point [where] I was missing a little bit of explosion but that’s the last part of it. The connection is there, now we’re just speeding up the connection. That’s the last part of the healing process.”
This auto immune disorder has sidelined the 27-year-old snapper since August. In the event Frederick’s recovery hits a snag this offseason, the Cowboys still have Joe Looney under contract at a $1MM 2019 base salary.