Dallas Cowboys center Travis Frederick is happy with his progress so far in his recovery from Guillain-Barre syndrome as he attempts to return this season after missing all of 2018.
Frederick has been participating in the team’s offseason workouts this month, his first activity with the team since being diagnosed with the rare auto-immune disorder during training camp last year.
“We eased kind of back into that to make sure that everything’s healthy and stable before we start going heavy, but as far as on-the-field stuff, I’m doing almost everything,” Frederick said Saturday at a radio station’s event, multiple media outlets reported Monday.
He added, “For the most part, I feel really good. We won’t know until I get out there and put the pads on and take my first rep whether or not it’s going to go well.”
Frederick added it’s been difficult to gauge his progress because he hasn’t been bench-pressing or squatting in the weight room, as he also is recovering from hernia surgery.
He told reporters he had never heard of the illness — in which the body’s immune system attacks nerves — before he was diagnosed. He said it also took doctors awhile to figure out the cause of his symptoms, which included stingers and numbness in his toes or hands.
“There were a lot of things thrown out over the course of time,” Frederick said. “It behaves a lot like M.S. It behaves a lot like polio, West Nile. A lot of things as you do more tests you rule those out. There is not a test that says this is what it is. It’s a combination of the symptoms and ruling out all of those things.”
Frederick also said the thought crossed his mind that he might never play again.
“But once the improvement started, and it happened at such an impressive rate,” he added, “it makes you think, ‘OK, maybe there is a chance here.’ And if it continues at this rate, I don’t see any reason why I can’t be back to 100 percent.”
Frederick, 28, has been with the Cowboys since they drafted him in the first round out of Wisconsin in 2013. He started all 80 regular-season games and three playoff games in his first five seasons, earning four Pro Bowl selections and a first-team All-Pro nod in 2016.
