GREEN BAY, Wis. -- Packers star edge rusher Micah Parsons won’t play Sunday against his former team, the Dallas Cowboys, but he said on his podcast that if this was Super Bowl week, he would play.
Parsons has not yet returned to practice since last season’s torn ACL and meniscus and remains on the physically unable to perform list.
“The biggest thing that people worried about with me, they’re like, ‘Man, why ain’t he back yet?’” Parsons said on the latest episode of podcast, “The Edge with Micah Parsons,” released this week.
“If the Super Bowl was this week, I’m playing in the Super Bowl. But it’s just about me making sure I have all the small things fixed first. What a lot of people don’t figure out is it’s not just the ACL. It’s like, why did the ACL happen? What was weak? Because it all works together. It’s a chain. And throughout the history of ACL, they notice if you come back early, there tends to be an overcompensation injury on the other side.”
Parsons said he wants to make sure everything is right before he gets back on the field.
“It’s like, what’s the point of getting me back for four weeks and then next thing you know, my groin [is] bothering me,” he said.
Earlier in the week, Packers coach Matt LaFleur said they’re still waiting for Parsons to be medically cleared.
“He’s a physical specimen, he’s a creature of nature for sure and sometimes you’ve got to make sure that your body is, I guess, what’s the word I’m looking for? Everything is just [in sync],” LaFleur said. “You don’t want one leg to be that much stronger than the other leg is what I’m getting at.”
Parsons was injured on Dec. 14 and had surgery on Dec. 29. The Packers typically hold out players coming back from ACL surgery for at least nine months. Parsons is about 9½ months removed from surgery.
Parsons had said during training camp this summer that he thought a return against his former team in Week 6 was “very realistic.”
“So many people wanted me to be back for that game to make the game bigger than what it was,” Parsons said on his podcast. “It’s just another ‘Sunday Night Football’ game between two good teams. It’s not about me. I think that probably let people down. ‘Oh, Micah, he’s gonna want to be back for the Dallas game.’ No, I’m in that phase of life where I just want to be healthy again. That’s it.”