New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley isn’t ready to offer a timetable on his return from a torn ACL, instead sticking to a similar “one day at a time” mantra.
“You know me, I’m going to take it one day at a time, come in with my head down and ready to work. I’m fortunate enough that I don’t think that I have anyone around me — not going to think I know from top to bottom, there’s nothing that’s going to be forced for me to come back. It’s going to be whenever my body tells me I’m ready and it will show when I’m ready to go, that’s when I’ll be able to go out there and be hopefully as good as I was before or even better,” Barkley told reporters on Wednesday.
Barkley, who suffered a severe knee injury during a Week 2 loss to the Chicago Bears last season, said he has learned to be smart about injuries and listen to his body.
When he does return, Barkley intends to do so at full strength.
“It’s tough — again, it’s tough because it’s getting closer and closer. But at the end of the day, you’ve just got to continue to stay patient. This is helping teach me patience. When you’re a dad and you have a little three-year-old girl running around the house, that teaches you patience, too,” Barkley said. “But also, when you have a sport that you love that’s taken away from you, you want to get back there as fast as you can obviously, but you have to be smart. At the end of the day I want to do the best for my team, not just for a short span but for a long time.
“Like I said I have no expectation, no set day when I’m going to be full go. I’m going to come into work every single day because that’s all I know. I got to this point where I’m at in my life, this is all about work, so it’s not going to stop, it’s not going to change, and if anything, it’s going to make me work harder.”
Still, missing 15 weeks of the season and being away from the team took a toll on Barkley, who also endured an injury-plagued season in 2019. He craved being part of the team and that feeling of “being a kid again.”
“I would say right now it’s the football thing, just missing being out there. Seeing your teammates, whether when I was injured or in a brace or getting prepared for surgery and watching the game on TV and not being able to be out there with my teammates or even right now, obviously I get my work done before them.” Barkley said. “But to be able to watch and see them out there and not being able to participate with them right now, those are the toughest things.
“At the end of the day, like I say, you have your ups and downs but that’s the biggest thing I miss the most just being able to go out there and be a kid again and play football and play a sport that I love and be surrounded with my teammates and just go out there and train football.”
The Giants are expected to ease Barkley back in, not having him practice until his ACL rehab is complete. Even then, expectations are that head coach Joe Judge will go slow with the 2018 Offensive Rookie of the Year.
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