SCARY TWIST
Bad news: Shep leaves on cart Good news: Likely just sprained ankle
What looked to be a possibly costly injury to Sterling Shepard might not be anything serious at all, but that did not stop the Giants from having a few anxious moments Wednesday, while awaiting word on their secondyear receiver.
Shepard had to be carted off the field early in practice after running a route in one-on-one drills. He fell to the grass, in obvious pain, looking quite upset, and he tried to put weight on his right leg, with trainers attending to him.
As it turns out, Shepard rolled his right ankle.
“Sterling, it looks at this point, like he has a rolled ankle, a basketball-type ankle,’’ coach Ben McAdoo said. “We’ll see how he responds to treatment, and we’ll go from there.
“He was running the hammer route, put his foot in the ground and rolled his ankle. At this point it just looks like he as a sprained ankle.’’
Shepard echoed the sentiment that the injury isn’t serious. He posted on Twitter: “Why you so good to me!! #allglory2god” with a link to an Instagram photo of him staring into the heavens.
A basketball-type sprained ankle is usually a low-ankle sprain, which is painful, but not nearly as debilitating as a highankle sprain, which can take six weeks to two months to heal. McAdoo said bringing the cart out for Shepard was merely a precaution. Recovery from a lowankle sprain could be a two-week process.
“I didn’t see what initially happened,’’ said Tavarres King, next in line to receive more snaps if Shepard misses extended time. “Hopefully Shep’s OK and gets back in a hurry, In our room we pride ourselves on everybody competing, so basically it’s the next man up mentality.’’
Shepard is part of a trio of receivers the Giants envision as lethal to opposing defenses, playing the slot, with Odell Beckham Jr. and Brandon Marshall operating outside. As a rookie, Shepard started all 16 games and caught 65 passes for 683 yards and eight touchdowns.
With Shepard off the f i el d, King, Roger Lewis and Darius Powe were among the young receivers to get increased snaps.
“I t hi nk a handful of g uys responded to reps,’’ McAdoo said. “We completed some balls today from an offensive perspective. That was encouraging.’’
As far as dealing with injuries in camp, McAdoo said: “We have the practice football to get better at football. So when someone goes down, the next man stands up, and we work as hard as we can behind the scenes to get the player healthy.’’