O’Hara Playing it Safe With Ankle
Giants’ C Shaun O’Hara will not play this week against Baltimore. Right now, his troublesome ankle is in a cast, immobilized for a few days to reduce the effects of tendonitis. 
O’Hara is playing it safe with his injury, just taking the steps needed to start the regular season as healthy as possible. He met with reporters today after practice.
Q: When did your ankle start getting bad again?
A: It’s just something that I’ve been dealing with all through camp. I’ve had some good days, and I’ve had some bad days. It’s really been something that we have been coping with, and pushing through. We finally reached a point where we decided that we need to just really try to isolate it and get some complete and total rest. That was really our medical staff’s decision. Really, it’s just trying to put us in the best position for week one, the start of the season
Q: How long will have the cast on?
A: Only a couple of days. Probably five or less. Somewhere around there.
Q: Would it be fair to say that there’s a chance that you probably won’t play the rest of the preseason?
A: Probably a good chance. Obviously, I could probably run faster than Rich even with the cast on. I doubt that they’d let me, certainly not this week, but next week probably not. The whole idea is to give it a few days rest, and hope that we can turn the corner and recover.
Q: If you get this cleared up, will it clear the path for you to play the rest of the season?
A: I think that’s really our mindset. I think we have been riding that roller coaster up and down of feeling good and then feeling bad. Rather than risk doing that the entire season, if we can calm everything down and make a significant improvement for the next two days, and then hopefully it’s an afterthought once we get to week two.
Q: How much does the injury hurt you?
A: I take a lot of pride in my job, and the toughest thing for any player is not being out there. I love coming to work, and I love being with my guys. I think practice, as monotonous as it can be, the worst practices are the ones you aren’t out there for. You can multiply that by 100 when it comes to a game. To not be out there, and especially knowing that Eli is coming back, even though it’s the preseason, I don’t want to miss anything. Just not being with the rest of the line is always the toughest part. Of course, they let you know about it every minute of the way.
Q: How much concern do you have that this could linger into the season and you miss some games?
A: I’m just happy that we have the medical staff that we do. It took a lot of courage for them to do this right now, at this point. A lot of other teams probably would push a player to go out there and fight through it, and then you’re dealing with it week two or week three. With their experience and with their foresight, they’re able to say ‘Look, let’s focus on what’s important and let’s see if this can’t help us get you through into the future.’ I feel pretty good if all goes well, and as planned. It’s something that I won’t have to be concerned about when the season starts.
Q: Other than the cast, anything else they can do for it?
A: No. I’m just going to, for now, rest. Normally it’s ‘rice’: rest, ice, compress, and elevate. Right now, we’re stuck on the ‘r.’ I’ll lift and do upper body stuff in the meantime. When we come back, we’ll start prepping and take it from there.
