More details are coming out about the latest injury suffered by Trevon Diggs, but what’s becoming increasingly clear is that the Cowboys will be without their star cornerback for a long time.

The surgery to repair his left knee will require a bone graft to address cartilage damage, according to multiple sources, and it will prolong his recovery time even further than originally anticipated.

While the team had been hopeful that the two-time Pro Bowler would be able to return to action around the start of the 2025 regular season, this latest news makes that timetable extraordinarily unlikely.

“I hope it’s definitely sooner,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said Friday, per ProFootballTalk. “But this is a big recovery for Trevon. It’s way too early for me to speculate on that.”

The injury reportedly occurred during the team’s Week 14 game against Cincinnati. Diggs tore the ACL in the same knee early in the 2023 season and missed 15 outings, but this injury is said to be a different issue.

The former second-round draft pick played every snap of the 27-20 loss and even began the next week of practice on a limited basis before consultation with the Cowboys medical staff determined that he should sit out the Week 15 trip to Charlotte to face the Panthers.

“He was having to play with fluid in his knee,” Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones said last week. “It’s certainly a very legitimate injury that’s gonna take him some time to recover from.”

Initial estimates put his rehab at “up to eight months,” but longtime Cowboys insider Clarence Hill Jr. of AllCity DLLS first posited that Diggs “could possibly miss most of next season.”

News of a planned bone graft lends considerable weight to that more conservative outlook.

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As described by David Moore of the Dallas Morning News, “this is where a new piece of bone is inserted into the damaged area in the same way a pothole is repaired or a gap in a joint is caulked.”

The procedure necessitates a longer recovery time than other options, but it offers a better chance at stimulating growth and strengthening the area.

Wide receiver Noah Brown underwent a similar procedure when he was with the Cowboys, causing him to miss the entire 2019 season.

At the conclusion of the 2024 regular season, Diggs will have played in just 13 of the Cowboys’ last 35 games, including playoffs. And now a sizable chunk of next year’s 17 is also in serious jeopardy.

Diggs, 26, has a $9 million base salary for 2025 that is guaranteed in case of injury.