McClain back from stinger

A “STINGER” isn’t an uncommon football injury, but it’s different when it happens to a player like Jameel McClain. That’s just the way it is for an NFL player with spinal stenosis, when any neck injury could always be enough to end a career.

So yes, when McClain suffered a stinger earlier in training camp, retirement was a possibility. But it wasn’t something he was ever close to seriously considering.

“That option is always out there,” McClain said on Sunday. “It’s something that’s always in the air when you go through an injury like this. But I’m built different. I die hard, like John McClane.”

Much like the Bruce Willis character from the “Die Hard” movies, McClain is back for more. He returned to practice on Sunday night for the first time since suffering the stinger on Aug. 5. When he first got hurt, everyone immediately worried about his condition and the fact that a bruised spinal cord cost him parts of the 2012 and 2013 seasons.

But McClain said this injury was never serious and he wasn’t worried at all.

“I was just like ‘I’ll be all right, don’t worry about me,’” McClain said. “I’m used to going through so much, something small to me is probably something big to someone else. … (This injury wasn’t) any comparison to what I went through before. What I went through before, I saw about 13, 14 doctors.”

SCHWARTZ READY TO GO

G Geoff Schwartz, who didn’t make the trip to Cincinnati due to soreness in his surgically repaired ankle, returned to practice on Sunday night. He said his foot felt good and that he didn’t expect to be limited any more. He also said he knows he has a lot to prove. “I need to stay healthy, I’ll put it like that,” Schwartz said.

RANDLE SITS OUT

WR Rueben Randle missed practice with knee tendinitis. The Giants said he was “day to day.”