Giants’ Andrew Thomas underwent left ankle surgery

Dan Benton
·2 min read

New York Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas had an up-and-down rookie season that ended on a much higher note than it began.

Early on, Thomas struggled against some of the league’s elite pass rushers and as it turns out, there may have been a reason for that.

Not only was Thomas learning a new offensive system and adjusting to the speed of the game early on, he did so with a nagging left ankle injury that required offseason surgery. The first-round pick revealed as much as Wednesday when he posted a post-op picture on his Instagram story with the caption, “everything went well. Thanks for the prayers.”

Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post reports that the ankle issue was known to Thomas and the Giants coming out of the draft and that it had been bothering the 21-year-old since training camp.

Sources told The Post that Thomas had ankle surgery to correct an issue that was known when he entered the league and had nagged him since training camp. He waited to get it fixed without fear of doing further damage.

Thomas is expected to recover by March, according to a source, and will be able to participate in the NFL offseason program if on-field activities are included again, depending on the COVID-19 situation.

Thomas never made excuses for his slow start and didn’t reveal his injury to anyone publicly until Wednesday.

“Obviously, it didn’t start out the way I want it to, but being a rookie left tackle in the NFL is a tough deal,” Thomas said in December. “It just took time. I’m running my own race, not paying attention to what’s going on in the other lanes, just focusing on what Andrew has to do to get better.”