Cowboys C Travis Frederick (Guillain-Barré Syndrome) “90-95%” Healthy Right Now

Cowboys C Travis Frederick says he’s “90 or 95 percent” healthy right now after missing the entire 2018 season with Guillain-Barré syndrome.

“I don’t know if it’s going to be 100 percent full go. I don’t if it’s going to be some. We’re just going to kind of feel it out sort of as we’ve felt this whole process,” Frederick said, via DallasCowboys.com.

Frederick mentioned that he can do “almost everything that I’ve been able to do previously” but there are still areas he’ll need to work to improve. 

“I’m to the point now where I can do almost everything that I’ve been able to do previously,” Frederick said. “Now, am I running at my top speed? I don’t know because I haven’t hit that number. Am I jumping as high as I have? I’m not sure yet. But once we get back in March and April, we’ll get a good feeling on where things are.

“It’s certainly been a long road and since the season’s been over I’ve continued to progress and things are moving in the right direction. I feel good about this spring.”

Guillain Barre Syndrome is a rare disorder in which your body’s immune system attacks your nerves. While Frederick is making progress, he cautioned that they will monitor his progress this spring before knowing whether he’ll be ready to return for the 2019 season.

“Honestly we’re not going to know until we get out there and start doing some stuff, where exactly I’m at,” Frederick said. “There isn’t a great way to empirically say, ‘This is the point that you’re going to be ready to come back.’ We can do all the nerve tests we want, but without a baseline, we don’t (know) where normal is. Everybody’s normal is a little bit different. So now it’s just about working in the weight room, trying to continue to increase my strength and work with the team in the offseason as far as conditioning-wise and get myself ready to try and meet at the same point as the rest of the team come March and April.”

However, it’s probably for the best for the Cowboys and Frederick to take a cautious approach and ensure that he’s back to 100 percent before returning.

Dallas placed Frederick on injured reserve in October.

Frederick, 27, is a former first-round pick of the Cowboys back in 2013. He’s entering the third year of his eight-year, $66.56 million that included $26.2 million guaranteed.

Frederick stands to make base salaries of $10 million and $6 million over the next two years of the agreement.

In 2017, Frederick appeared in all 16 games for the Cowboys and was rated by Pro Football Focus as the No. 2 center out of 36 qualifying players.