Dallas Cowboys will ‘have to drag me off the field,’ says a hobbled Ezekiel Elliott

Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott doesn’t deny that his injured right knee has limited his play and production.

He says it’s more serious than the bone bruise that the Cowboys initially reported but he wouldn’t divulge the exact nature of the injury.

What is most important, as far as Elliott is concerned, is that he injury is getting better, according to an MRI exam taken on Friday. He takes pride in being out there for his teammates and there is no chance of him missing a game to rest.

“You are going to have to drag me off the field,” Elliott said.

The latter is even more important with backup Tony Pollard now battling a foot injury that kept him out of practice on Wednesday.

Pollard spent most of his time with Britt Brown, the team’s director of rehabilitation, while Elliott was a full participant.

Elliott said the knee feels a lot better after having the weekend off, following a stretch in which the Cowboys played three games in 12 days, culminating with last Thursday’s 27-10 victory against the New Orleans Saints.

Ten days will have passed before Elliott takes the field against the Washington Football Team on Sunday.

Elliott said he slept most of the weekend and it helped his knee.

“It feels better. It feels good,” Elliott said. “Getting some strength back. A lot of the stiffness is going away. The MRI showed it’s progressing. It’s healing. It’s getting better. So it’s healing up and going in the right direction.”

Not only is it getting better, but Elliott also said doctors have told him that playing on it can’t make it any worse.

He believes the knee will be back to full strength in three to four weeks and he said there is no talk of surgery after the season.

“Should be good in 3-4 weeks. Normal,” Elliott said. “That’s perfect timing. Hopefully perfect timing, close to as good as it can be when playoffs are rolling around. Just got to do everything we can to make sure we’re continuing to progress that way.”

With Washington (6-6) just two games behind the NFC East-leading Cowboys (8-4), there is no question that Elliott is going to do everything he can, starting with staying on the field and playing through the knee injury.

The question is, will it make a difference in his performance?

Elliott can’t jump cut. He barely can cut and has run with no juice of late.

This has been most evident the last month when had the worst four-game rushing stretch of his six-year career, picking up 143 combined yards on 45 carries.

Elliott had 85 carries for 452 yards and five touchdowns through the first five games of the season before suffering the injury against the Carolina Panthers in October.

He has 88 carries for 313 yards and three touchdowns over the last seven.