New York Giants’ Saquon Barkley limps off practice field Monday

08/24/2020

Even the smallest of injuries to Saquon Barkley cause a scare. The New York Giants star battled a high ankle sprain last year.

All eyes are on Saquon Barkley when he takes the field, and breath is certainly held when he’s forced to step off of it.

On Monday, the New York Giants star running back limped off the Quest Diagnostics Training Center practice field, according to Matt Lombardo of NJ Advance Media. Apparently, Barkley sustained an injury when attempting to break a tackle during the team’s 11-on-11 period. He eventually returned but sat out the final two practice periods.

It’s unclear if it was specifically an ankle-related setback.

– Scary moment early,TE Rysen John went down grabbing his left thigh on a 1-on-1 route against Monte Hartrage. But, John returned to practice.

– Later, Saquon Barkley limped off after trying to break a tackle in 11-on-11, returned to finish but was held out of last 2 periods.

— Matt Lombardo (@MattLombardoNFL) August 24, 2020

Barkley battled a high ankle sprain much of last year, which caused him to miss three games from Weeks 4-6. He returned for the team’s final 10 regular-season matchups but wasn’t the same player he was during his Pro Bowl rookie campaign of 2018.

Despite the health-related issues though, Barkley still surpassed 1,000 yards rushing for the year.

In a perfect world, this will be just a minor setback and Barkley will return to performing as a full practice participant in the coming days. A legitimate long-term injury would obviously be detrimental to the offense and team, but it doesn’t seem like this is that type of situation whatsoever.

Barkley is entering his first NFL season in which he won’t be following along with a Pat Shurmur-constructed playbook. Jason Garrett, hired in January as the team’s offensive coordinator, will now be calling the plays. Garrett’s past success with Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott should give Giants fans some form of optimism that the running game will thrive in 2020.