Cowboys' Mike McCarthy discusses status after appendectomy

Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy isn't letting a little thing like a midweek appendectomy distract him from the upcoming "Sunday Night Football" home game against the 10-2 Philadelphia Eagles. 

"I feel good," McCarthy told reporters via a Friday conference call, per Nick Shook of the NFL's website. "And I anticipate everything staying normal come Sunday night."

According to Todd Archer of ESPN, McCarthy requires no additional medical clearance to coach Sunday's massive game at AT&T Stadium from the sideline. 9-3 Dallas trails only Philadelphia in the NFC East standings, and the Cowboys could still earn the No. 1 seed for the NFC portion of the playoffs. 

The Eagles beat Dallas 28-23 at Lincoln Financial Field back in Week 9. As of Friday afternoon, the ESPN Football Power Index gave Philadelphia an 82.0% chance to claim the division title. ESPN gave the Cowboys an 18.0% chance to win the division at that same time. 

"Trust me, anybody who knows me or who's ever worked with me, I'm the last guy that wants to take any attention off the players," McCarthy said about returning to work so soon after his procedure on Wednesday. "This is a players' game. I've built my program around that premise. Everything that touches the locker room is the most important, that's why it's imperative for me to get back in here and get going to make sure the normalcy was totally back in place. I do give the players a ton of credit and coaches for just keeping it rolling on Wednesday and Thursday."

After McCarthy offered his comments, oddschecker listed the Cowboys as 3.5-point favorites to win Sunday's prime-time showdown. That line may be related to the fact that the Eagles were thrashed at home to the tune of 42-19 by the San Francisco 49ers (9-3) last Sunday. 

Meanwhile, Dallas won its past four games and six of its past seven.