Prince Amukamara leaves game with high ankle sprain

The Giants may have lost their starting cornerback for the regular-season opener in a week and a half, but they were optimistic that Prince Amukamara will not be sidelined much longer than that.

Amukamara suffered a high ankle sprain in the first quarter of Friday night's 20-17 preseason loss to the Bears, an injury that resulted in his being carted off the field for X-rays. There was no fracture, but a high ankle sprain usually carries a recovery period of four to six weeks.

"Dr. Warren said he thought it was mild," Tom Coughlin said. "I don't like that term, high ankle, but if it's a mild sprain, perhaps it won't take as much time to get him back."

The Giants should hope so; with three of their top four players at the position currently unavailable, they are perilously thin at cornerback. While Corey Webster remains healthy on the left side, Amukamara joins Terrell Thomas (knee) and Jayron Hosley (toe) as cornerbacks who are unable to play and -- at the very best -- are iffy for the Sept. 5 opener against Dallas.

Although there was no indication that he was injured until after the next play, Amukamara hurt his right ankle when Devin Hester ran an end-around for 19 yards late in the first quarter and Brandon Marshall landed on Amukamara's lower leg. He stayed in the game and made a tackle on the next play, an 8-yard pass from Jay Cutler to Marshall.

On the second play, the second-year cornerback was coming up to make the tackle on Marshall and seemed to stumble. He completed the takedown, but when he tried to get to his feet, he paused and went back to the turf. He was unable to put any weight on the leg.

"You see him get carted off and your heart drops for the guy," Justin Tuck said. "He's finally getting his shot to step up and be a big- time player for us and he's been doing a great job of that. Hopefully it's not something that lingers and he can overcome real quickly and get back on the football field."

Bruce Johnson replaced Amukamara and the Bears went right at him. Marshall caught an 11-yard pass against him on his second snap, and three plays later, he caught a 21-yard touchdown pass on Johnson's side. Johnson said he missed his assignment.

That turned out to be about the only defensive glitch of the game for the Giants' starters, who put pressure on Cutler for the rest of the first half. He completed only 7 of 17 passes for 72 yards. Bears running back Matt Forte was held to four rushing yards on eight carries in the first half. Nineteen of the team's 29 rushing yards came on that end-around to Hester.

The Giants also lost a starting cornerback in last year's preseason game against the Bears. Thomas tore his ACL in that game and aggravated the reconstructed ligament early in this season's training camp. He's out indefinitely.

While Amukamara's prognosis is not that dire, he's certainly not expected to be up and bounding around in the next few weeks. And yet the Giants left MetLife Stadium hoping that he will be able to play against the Cowboys on Sept. 5.

"Obviously with that big showdown with Dallas," Tuck said, "we have all of our bullets."

Notes & quotes: LB Mathias Kiwanuka, who had two tackles for losses, suffered a groin strain on the final snap of the first half . . . Although he did not play, WR Hakeem Nicks (foot) was in full uniform and warmed up before the game . . . Rookie David Douglas had a 36-yard punt return negated by two holding penalties and a 36-yard reception negated by a holding penalty.