After suffering a significant leg injury for the second time in as many years, the Giants player with the longest tenure has said that he has every intention of returning to the field.
As soon as Sterling Shepard went down on the field against the Dallas Cowboys in Week 3 with what was thought to be, and turned out to be, a torn anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), the first thought that came to mind was that we may have seen the last of Shepard as an NFL player.
Shepard Was Able to Return to the Field in Week 4
He had a difficult, injury-riddled season in 2021. It culminated in a ruptured Achilles tendon and required a laborious, nine-month rehabilitation to recover from.
Before it, he had only been able to participate in 22 of a potential 32 games throughout the 2019 and 2020 seasons due to a variety of ailments.
The first thing that sprang to mind was that the 29-year-old player may finally put up his cleats if he suffered a second horrific leg injury in a row that ended his season. Well, maybe not so quickly.
Shepard responded with “Dang right” when he was asked whether he had another comeback in him as he was speaking with the media in the Giants’ locker room on Wednesday. I would want to end things on my own terms.
Shepard said that he did not want anything similar to motivate him to leave the house. As a result, I am going to make it my mission to get my body into fighting shape so that I can improve my performance and make this thing better.
2016 Giants Second-round Pick Shepard
Shepard, who was selected by the Giants in the second round in 2016 and has been with the team the longest, said that there is a time of grief following a significant injury. But he immediately understood that he wanted to continue playing. The next morning, I had an epiphany.
When I heard it, I thought, “You know what? I am not going to let this get me down. Not going to happen. I am going to push through this challenge. Shepard said, “I’ve already done it, and I can do it again.”
Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears saw Shepard on the bench for the game. In addition to that, he will go to London with the team to participate in Sunday’s game against the Green Bay Packers.
Shepard said that just because they were trying to drag him down, it did not mean that he needed to have a cloud over his head and pull everyone else down with him.
As one of the more experienced players in our locker room, I believe it is important for me to provide a hand to my fellow teammates in any manner that I can.
He Knows from Experience That How Much He Means to the Giants and Their Fans
Odell Beckham Jr. traveled in from the Bahamas to see Shepard at the Giants’ practice facility, just one example of the outpouring of support that Shepard has gotten since the injury. Shepard said, “They are really important to me.”
I might have bounced back from that Achilles injury without them giving me another chance, but they did. What is more, I am grateful to the management and owners here for all they have done to help me advance in my career.
And I have a great debt to them. I do not want to go out on this note; therefore, I am going to offer all I have to them. That being stated, I intend to engage in combat. I like to get my hands dirty. As a result, I intend to act accordingly. According to Shepard, his knee “did something odd” two plays before he crashed to the ground, and he feared he had already been injured.
