FRISCO, Texas -- Dallas Cowboys pass rusher Micah Parsons is not sure he will play Sunday against the Philadelphia Eagles, but if he does, he does not expect to ease into the action.
"Once I'm playing, I'm playing," Parsons said. "That's just the competitor in me. I was banged up plenty of times and I'm just like once I'm competing, I'm competing. It's hard to restrain that."
Parsons practiced Wednesday for the first time since suffering a high left ankle sprain in the fourth quarter of the Week 4 win against the New York Giants. He was officially listed as a limited participant and wants to see how he feels through the rest of the week.
The Cowboys are expected to have a full-padded practice on Thursday.
"Basically, it's like I'm starting my season all over again so it's just going to be an interesting week," Parsons said.
Despite missing the past four games, Parsons still leads the Cowboys in pressures with 21. Osa Odighizuwa is second with 15. He is just two off the team lead in sacks behind DeMarcus Lawrence, who has three and has not played since the Giants' game because of a midfoot sprain. Parsons has been credited with 18 tackles, 1 sack, 1 tackle for loss and 1 pass deflection.
Parsons did not expect to be out this long.
"I mean as soon as I got hurt I was like, 'Man I can come back against Detroit right? I get it. I got a long week,' and then realizing my injury is more significant than I thought and the team thought when I got the MRI," he said. "It was challenging. Obviously, everyone is different, the healing process was different. I thought I was known as a fast healer. Obviously, I didn't want to go on [injured reserve], but looking back I probably should [have]. It's a tough place to be in, honestly, because I couldn't even get on my toes for three, four weeks. So it's constant battling and I'm just happy to be where I'm at."
Watching has been difficult for Parsons, who had not missed a game with injury in his career until the ankle injury.
"I think there's games where we're losing by six points and I definitely believe I could make a difference in those games," he said. "Six-point game, [are] you telling me, me and D-Law can't make a difference? An extra stop in one point of the games? It's hard for me to believe we can't. So my goal is, if I'm up this week, to go out there and prove that."
But he has a couple steps left to go before feeling certain he will be able to play.
"I just have to go full go. I got to be back in pads. I got to make my game-like movements," Parsons said. "At the end of the day, you don't want to put bad film out there. You don't want to go out there being limited. People might see that and try to attack that like 'He's trying to brace for his leg,' or 'He's limping.' You just don't want to be the person that's holding the team back."