Amobi Okoye On Track to Return in Week 7

Okoye is currently on the non-football injury list

Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Amobi Okoye says he’s on track to return to action in Week 7, when he is scheduled to come off the non-football injury list.

Signed by the Cowboys this offseason, Okoye is recovering from anti-NMDA encephalitis, a rare brain condition that put him in a medically-induced coma just a year and a half ago and caused him to miss the entire 2013 season. By opening the season on the non-football injury list, he’s ineligible to play for the first six weeks of 2014.

It’s definitely been tough,” Okoye told the team’s official website. “I mean, first of all, I had to sit out all of last year, then had to sit out another six weeks. But it is what it is. I was pretty bummed out the first time when I was put on the list, but I took it for what it is. I needed more time to get better.”

There’s no overstating the serious of the illness suffered by Okoye, but the 27-year-old says he never doubted that he would make his way back to football.

“I never looked at it that way, because I don’t believe that,” Okoye said of the idea that his career might be over. “I believe that I’m still young enough to play a couple more years. I think that’s what I’m put on this Earth to do, is play football.”

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