Giants RB Saquon Barkley's ankle is 'getting better,' but his status for Sunday remains unclear
Giants running back Saquon Barkley walks on the field during warmups before an NFL football game between the New York Giants and the Seattle Seahawks, Monday, Oct. 2, 2023, in East Rutherford, N.J. Credit: AP/Adam Hunger
Saquon Barkley said Thursday in the Giants' locker room that his high ankle sprain is improving.
He offered no assurance that he will be on the field with his teammates at Buffalo on Sunday night.
“Getting better. Similar spot as last week,” Barkley said. “[I am] trusting the trainers, continuing rehab and taking it day by day. I feel like I’m trending [better] every week. … But when you have injuries, sometimes it takes time.”
Barkley said a fully healed high ankle sprain takes six to eight weeks to heal. He intends to beat that timetable.
“I’ve played with this before,” he said. “You can play with it. It sucks. Sometimes when you play, you feel it. Sometimes you don’t. Every week it gets better. You hope it doesn’t backtrack.”
He also wished it never happened.
“At Arizona, an unblocked guy comes and takes my leg out,” Barkley said. “To be honest, it could have been worse. I look at it from that perspective as a blessing. Knowing I will be back on the field soon and it’s not something where I’m out for a year or that I have to get surgery for.”
Barkley talked with reporters the day after Daniel Jones did. Jones suffered a neck injury in Sunday's loss at Miami.
There is a possibility the Giants are without Jones and Barkley this week.
“It’s a contact sport, it’s a physical sport, so I think the idea is to recover and be healed,” Jones said. “That’s the idea. So, I’m trying to [heal up] as soon as possible so I can get back out there.”
Of his routine these days, Barkley said he is listening to trainers and staff members, and taking the reps he can take on the practice field.
During the limited portion of practice that media is permitted to watch during the regular season, Barkley was going through the early stages of practice Thursday. That indicates progress from previous Barkley sightings since the injury.
Barkley said he’s tried to measure his progress by getting better every week.
“As a competitor, you want to be out there,” he said. “It’s not about wanting to be out there and I’m going to change something. It’s more the mindset of, I see the guys fighting and there’s nothing you can do. It’s hard to lead. It’s hard to have a presence from the sideline in a hat and hoodie and in street clothes.”
Barkley isn’t ready to give up on the Giants season.
“I think it’s important for me to get back out there,” he said. “Especially where we’re at this season. I feel like I can make an impact. Hopefully, I can do that.”
During Sunday’s game against Miami, Barkley barked back at a person he said was a Giants fan who was mocking Jones after he went into the blue tent to have his neck examined.
Barkley was still irritated by that exchange on Thursday.
“Fans don’t bother me,” he said. “I don’t let that get under my skin. But in that moment with [Jones] -- someone who would give his all to this franchise and this city and would risk it every single day, to bring a Super Bowl to this city and this organization -- and he just hurt his neck and he’s sitting in a blue tent getting checked on and he’s got a fan [yelling profanities]. That doesn’t sit well with me.”
Barkley added, “If you’re booing because you don’t like the product, I get it. But have sympathy at the same time. He’s a human being. Out of all people, it shouldn’t be 8 [Jones].”
Kimberly Jones covers the Giants for Newsday, a beat she first worked in the early 2000s before joining the YES Network to cover the Yankees. She worked for the NFL Network for more than a decade and has been heard semi-regularly on WFAN.
