Giants news, 10/15: Saquon Barkley opens up about sprained ankle

Good morning, New York Giants fans!

Saquon Barkley: “Frustrating” to be hurt again

The sprained ankle that Barkley suffered last week against the Dallas Cowboys is not expected to keep him out for more than two to three weeks. But given his history, it was hard not to anticipate the worst when he was carted off the field.

Barkley wasn’t quite as worried, but the injury still brought back memories of his ACL tear from last September.

“When I first rolled my ankle, I kind of thought it was like just a little roll,” Barkley said. “It’s happened before. I didn’t expect it to swell up like that. Obviously, you guys probably all saw the TV copy or the picture that was out there. I didn’t expect it to swell up that fast. Obviously, just frustrated. I knew that I had to sit out the rest of the game and I feel like I just started getting my stride back and started feeling good. But everything happens for a reason and a little setback and just got to go back to work.

“I didn’t want to get on the cart because the last time I was on the cart I was out for the season. I didn’t want to have that mentality, but as clear as you guys saw my ankle, it was kind of hard to walk on that even though I wanted to tough it out. Yeah, that was kind of just the mentality I had behind it.”

Barkley has not played a full season since his rookie year in 2018, so he knows how to stay mentally focused and avoid self-pity.

“I’ll be honest, it’s frustrating,” Barkley said. “It doesn’t make sense why it’s happening, but obviously when you get hurt you have those one or two days when it’s an ankle sprain. Obviously, when it’s a knee injury, it’s probably a little longer. You have those days to reflect and feel bad for yourself and have that ‘why me?’ mentality, but you can’t keep that mindset. Having that mindset, you’re not going to get anywhere with it. You’ve just got to look on the brighter side. Everything happens for a reason. This could slow me down to help me out in other ways to get myself ready and whenever I’m going to get back on the field, just get back to playing the sport that I love and to get back to contributing to help the team.”

Somewhat ironically, the ankle sprain will give Barkley some time to rest his knee. He has flashed some of his old explosiveness at times this season, but we have yet to see evidence that he is one hundred percent.

“I wouldn’t say my knee needed that because – I don’t know. Before the Dallas game, you just know like when you’re going to have a good game, I guess you can say, when you feel right, and I felt pretty good before the Dallas game,” Barkley said. “But yeah, this could be a blessing in disguise. It is going to be a blessing in disguise and I’m going to create it to be a blessing in disguise. From that medical standpoint that I guess you’re saying, it slowed me down a little bit, but just a little bump and going to take advantage of just continuing to rehab my knee, get better throughout the season and continue to rehab this and when I’m able to go back out there, I’ll be full go when I’m back.”

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