Terrell Thomas Injury Update: Possible Return This Season?

     Last week, there was some shocking injury news that came out of Giants camp: veteran corner back Terrell Thomas re-injured his ACL. This would be his third injury to the ACL area within three years, which is very concerning for this corner back who was once thought to be the best corner on the Giants' roster.Questions were beginning to form, not only asking if he'll play this season, but also if his career was in jeopardy.  Many Giants fans (including myself) were worried that it was.

     But Tom Coughlin was smiling after practice today, as he had received some GREAT news. According to Coughlin, Thomas was cleared by noted orthopedist James Andrews to start rehabilitating his ACL injury. To the relief of many, he will not need surgery on that ligament for the third time, and has already started his rehab in his home. The officially injury report that was agreed upon between Andrews and the Giant's medical staff states that Thomas “stretched” and “aggravated” the ligament but did not tear it completely.
“He’ll jump into a rehab program,” Coughlin said. “We’ll watch him very, very closely, we’ll hopefully accelerate the strengthening of the knee and see how soon he can join us and we’ll hope for the very best.”
The only concern Coughlin and the doctors have about Thomas' injured ACL is that it might swell. If that's the case, it will set back the rehabilitating stage by multiple months, which could be devastating to Thomas and the Giants. After multiple questions about the time frame for Thomas' return, Coughlin expressed some realities, “It would be wonderful if he went out there and did all these zigzags and came off and had no swelling and felt great and said, ‘Okay, what’s next?’ But I can’t tell you what the answer’s going to be when he does all of that.” The hope of some doctors close to James Andrews is that Thomas will experience no setbacks, and be back to practice within 3-5 weeks. That is REALLY great news. This would allow him to be on the roster for opening day, and soon play thereafter. Even though this is some really great news, there's always a possibility for a setback, and we need to keep up hopes that we'll see Thomas on the field again.