Giants’ latest Malik Nabers injury news is a lot worse than expected originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Apparently, thinks aren’t as smooth as the New York Giants would’ve hoped when it comes to Malik Nabers’ recovering from a season-ending knee injury.
Generally, there was an assumption that Nabers would be good to go for the start of the 2026 NFL season. New head coach John Harbaugh provided a bit of caution in his comments to reporters on Thursday.
Harbaugh began by pointing out that there were layers to this injury, a torn ACL and meniscus in September that actually needed a second surgery during the offseason to remove scar tissue.
“He’s in the middle of it. It’s such a hard thing. It’s an ACL, and whatever else he had in that knee,” Harbaugh told reporters at OTAs. “Not a simple knee [injury], you know? So, um, he’s in the slog of it, the grind of it, I would say. So, he’s fighting through it, and he’s here every day working hard at it.”
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The Giants open the season with a Sunday night game against the Cowboys on Sept. 13. Harbaugh isn’t ready to commit to Nabers being available that night.
“Just impossible to predict,” the new head coach said. “I mean, the goal is to start the season and get out there sometime in training camp. That’d be the goal, and we’ll see what happens.”
Nabers is obviously pivotal to the Giants’ hopes for 2026, with his presence being a big potential key for Jaxson Dart taking a step forward at quarterback.
As a rookie out of LSU in 2024, Nabers had 109 catches for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns.
He made it just four games into the 2025 season before his knee injury. In that span, he had 18 catches for 27 yards and two scores.
The Giants still have Darius Slayton, but Wan’Dale Robinson left in free agency. They added Darnell Mooney and Calvin Austin as their own signings, and they drafted Malachi Fields.
Nabers will be the leader of this group when he’s healthy. Apparently the timeline on full health is still a bit iffy, though.