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There had been some hope that New York Giants wide receiver Sterling Shepard (toe) would return against the Washington Football Team in Week 6, but that did not occur.
Rather, Shepard worked a bit on the side throughout the week, but was never officially designated to return from injured reserve and remained sidelined this past Sunday.
Now facing a short weeks that culminates with a game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Thursday night, the hope is once again that Shepard can make his return.
“I think we’re a little bit closer than we were last week. Obviously, he didn’t make it to the game,” head coach Joe Judge told reporters on Monday. “He worked with the trainers today. I’m going a lot right now off the information they’ve given me from today’s workout. We were in staff meetings when he was out there on the field doing some of his rehab stuff.
“Being a walkthrough week for us, we’ll have to go really based on what the trainers tell us. We’ll have to go ahead and look at him. We’ll see. This could go up to a pregame workout. We’re not sure. We’ll see where he’s at throughout the week.”
Even if Shepard is a game-time decision, the Giants will have to designate him from return prior to pregame on Thursday.
The good news is that no additional roster shuffling will be needed to make that happen as the team officially placed linebacker Lorenzo Carter (Achilles) on season-ending injured reserve on Monday evening.
The bad news is that the Giants desperately need Shepard back. Currently, they have only four wide receivers on their active roster — Golden Tate, Darius Slayton, Austin Mack and C.J. Board — and Board is in concussion protocol after a terrifying hit in Week 6.
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