Morris Claiborne Injury: MRI Reveals Dallas Cowboys Rookie Has Sprained MCL

Dallas Cowboys rookie Morris Claiborne will be out of training camp for a week because of a sprained medial-collateral ligament in his left knee according to a report from ESPN.

Claiborne had an MRI on the ligament on Friday after he sat out of the afternoon practice with discomfort.

He will spend his time in camp over the next week working with Cowboys coaches, as they attempt to stuff as much terminology into their first-round pick to make use of his time off the gridiron.

Still, this is a disappointing setback for Claiborne, who already missed Dallas' offseason OTA's and rookie camps because of a wrist injury.

"

"A little bit disappointing," Claiborne said, "but it's not too much because I know it's not something serious. I know it's something I can come back from. You can't just get mad over something you can't control."

"

He may not be able to control when he gets injured, but Dallas needs him to be on the field.

When the Cowboys moved up to select him with the sixth pick, they were expecting to get an immediate impact player.

Claiborne has the ability to provide that, but he won’t ever become an effective starter if he can’t get in consistent work in practice.

As a rookie, he needs reps with his team to get used to the speed of the NFL game. No amount of time in the film room will provide that.

Claiborne showed no signs of having injury problems at LSU, and these two injuries to start his career could just be a pair of freak occurrences.

But either way, he needs to figure out a way to get healthy—and do so quickly.

Because the Giants are waiting in Week 1, and Hakeem Nicks certainly won’t take time to explain the game to the rookie.