Giants' Terrell Thomas relieved to avoid another ACL surgery

For the first time in awhile, Giants cornerback Terrell Thomas had some good news about the ACL that was surgically repaired in his right knee.

By Alex Raskin

Aug 8, 2012 at 1:36 pm ET • 2 min read

For the first time in awhile, Giants cornerback Terrell Thomas had some good news about the ACL that was surgically repaired in his right knee.

Thomas returned to the team’s training camp at SUNY Albany on Wednesday after flying around the country to have his knee examined by Dr. Arthur Ting and Dr. James Andrews. The five-year veteran, who missed the 2011 season because of the second ACL tear in his right knee, slipped at practice on July 29th and consequently saw his knee swell.

Giants vice president of medical services Dr. Ronnie Barnes felt there was an injury to the ACL at the time, which prompted Thomas to seek an MRI as well as a second and third opinion.

As Thomas said Wednesday, the MRI came back negative and since the swelling went down in his knee, the consensus among the three doctors was that he should rest and attempt to come back this season rather than having a third surgery on the joint. When asked, Thomas said it could be between three and eight weeks before he can return, although he didn’t rule out playing in Week 1.

“Yeah, pretty much just letting it scar up, let it tighten back up and just, you know, kind of just letting mother nature take place,” Thomas said. “My leg is still strong but, you know, it’s time to kind of take a couple of steps back.”

The doctors also opted against arthroscopic surgery, which could have officially diagnosed whether or not there was an ACL tear.

But as Thomas said on Wednesday, “An ACL is so simple, it’s either working or it’s not.”

The doctors believe his ACL is working, but just “aggravated,” while Thomas himself thinks the knee problem was caused by a sore back issue that he had at the beginning of training camp.

“When you analyze the practice film and look how I fell, it wasn’t severe at all,” Thomas said. “There’s no reason I should have stretched (the ACL) or did anything.

"And mine is still working, so, thank God," he continued. "Something happened which caused it to swell. They thought it might have been a bone bruise or who knows what it could have been."

Thomas hasn’t played in a regular season game since 2010, but the former starter considers himself lucky to still have a chance to play this season.

And as far as Thomas is concerned, it’s a very good chance.

“The strength was still there,” Thomas said. “I never had any pain or weakness or anything. (The doctors) came to a consensus that, you know, there’s no reason to go in there to scope to find if there’s anything wrong. There’s no reason to, you know, put him on IR and, you know, (do a) reconstruction. Let’s just see what happens with rehab because everything else around it is doing pretty well.”