Whether or not Tony Romo can manage the pain from the cracked rib and collapsed lung he sustained during Sunday's overtime victory over the San Francisco 49ers likely will be the primary factor in determining if the quarterback will play in the next game, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said.
Romo silenced those who doubted his toughness Sunday when he came back from injury to lead the Cowboys to a road win they desperately needed. Romo missed nearly all of the third quarter -- and for a moment was pronounced out by the Cowboys -- only to return to throw for 201 yards, one touchdown and a 77-yard strike to Jesse Holley to set up the game-winning field goal.
Jones said it was unclear if Romo would play Monday night against the NFC East rival Washington Redskins.
"I don't know. I really don't," Jones told KRLD-FM on Tuesday, via ESPN.com. "I understand the nature of the injury as much as you can without being in medicine. We'll just have to see how it goes. It has everything to do with just his ability to handle the pain, and we know he has a bunch of it.
"We'll see how that goes. He'll be monitored obviously extremely closely regarding the pneumothorax (collapsed lung) and we'll see how it goes."
Romo said Monday that he plans to play against the Redskins, and based on his Week 2 performance, it would be tough to count him out. Jones said the decision to play or not ultimately might be up to Romo.
"I think that you just have to depend upon in this case the player, in this case Tony's sense of what his body is telling him," Jones said. "That's what he did, and he ultimately of course was told to sit out when he came out but didn't honor that. We allow players to give us those kinds of reads in most areas, with the exception of your concussion area and your head area."
Romo isn't the only Cowboys playmaker hit with the injury bug. Wide receiver Miles Austin aggravated a hamstring strain against the 49ers.
"I'm probably pretty negative on Miles getting to play (against the Redskins)," Jones said.
