Cowboys guard Zack Martin to have season-ending surgery - ESPN

FRISCO, Texas — The season is over for Dallas Cowboys All-Pro guard Zack Martin. Coach Mike McCarthy said Martin will undergo surgery on a right ankle issue that has been troubling the player for some time.

Martin has missed the past two games with ankle and shoulder injuries. And now comes a question as to whether he will be back in 2025.

«I think you just have to take a step back and deal with one thing at a time and that's frankly the conversation that Zack and I had,» McCarthy said. «The focus is really about the surgery, what's next. And I think those are all questions that I'm sure that will be asked or will be thought about. But he really, in my conversations with him, his focus is on getting the surgery and trying to do the best he can with this ankle because obviously this is I think the third surgery that he'll have on that ankle.»

Martin, who turned 34 last month, is under contract through 2025, however, when the deal was restructured last offseason it was designed to help spread out a salary-cap hit over the 2025 and '26 seasons if he retired. If Martin is on the roster the fifth day of the 2025 league year, he would be guaranteed $40 million in 2026. Had the Cowboys not made that move, Martin would have counted nearly $25 million against the 2025 cap.

Martin has been bothered by a right ankle injury for most of the season and suffered a shoulder injury during the season. In the Nov. 18 loss to the Houston Texans, Martin left early because of a sprain to his other ankle. The hope was that with time off he would recover enough to be able to return, but the right ankle injury continued to be problematic, which led to the decision to have surgery.

«Everybody involved thought it was best for him to get the