After missing last Sunday's game with painful cluster headaches, Terrance Knighton is feeling better, but the team will continue to monitor his health.
It's an excruciating pain that pretty much shuts down the body, even for someone as big and strong as the 6-foot-3, 354 pound Terrance Knighton.
Last Saturday, the team announced that Knighton did not travel with the team to New England for their Sunday matchup against the Patriots as he was dealing with headaches.
But these weren't just any headaches; they were cluster headaches. Knighton told ESPN's John Keim this week that "on a scale of one to 10, the pain is a 50."
Back at Redskins Park on Wednesday, Knighton participated in practice and said he was feeling a lot better.
"They're day to day, if I felt good to go out there, I'll go out there," Knighton said on Wednesday. "The only good thing about them is the doctor said it's not going to hurt me in the long run. It's not something I'm going to have to worry about health-wise. It's just basically if I can tolerate it, then I can go out and play. If not, then it's best I stay away."
Sunday's game was the first time Knighton had missed a game since Week 12 of the 2011 season.
He'd been dealing with the headaches over the last month, though.
"I played in practice [with headaches during] the Bye Week," Knighton said. "I played the last two games, what was it Tampa Bay and I think New York, I played in both dealing with it. It was just too bad last week to even make the trip, so it was just precautionary but I'm feeling a lot better."
The issue for Knighton is that they're simply unpredictable, as there is no specific trigger that sets them off.
Check out images of veteran defensive lineman Terrance Knighton during his first few months as a Washington Redskin.
"I went two days without them and then they'll come back, so it's just something I've got to deal with," Knighton continued. "Usually they last for maybe a month or two, I'll usually be pain-free for about two to three years and then they'll come back. It varies, there's times I had them for a week, and they go away, or there's times I had them for two weeks and they go away so I just pray every morning, pray every night that they go away."
The headaches started when he was just a kid, but this is only the second time he's had to deal with them while in the NFL.
He said when he first played for the Broncos in 2013, he got them during OTAs but they only lasted for a week or two, perhaps due to the change in altitude in Denver.
As for this weekend's game against the New Orleans Saints, the team will continue to monitor him each day. While they'd love to have him back in the lineup, health is the biggest priority right now.
"We'll have to wait and see how he does," head coach Jay Gruden said. "So hopefully whatever he's doing to help the migraine issue is working, but, you know, it's a concern. We just have to take it day by day and see how he's doing each morning."
.
.
.
