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Despite the misfortunes of the Giants season, tight end Evan Engram hoped he might be able to get back on the field.

As it turned out, Engram’s hope that his foot sprain would only be a 2-4-week affair was a case of him being overly optimistic.

“Players have different impressions as to how long their injuries are going to take to come back from,” said Giants head coach Pat Shurmur. 

“We felt like it was best to put him on IR, and then we’ll see here. They’ll finish up the evaluation of what will need to be done to his (foot) to move forward.”

Moving forward for Engram will be having surgery to push along the healing process, which he said has been slower than anticipated. The surgery will be performed Friday morning by Dr. Robert Anderson in Green Bay, a procedure that Engram said should put some more stability back into his ailing foot.

“It’s not a full Lisfranc injury, but the ligament is still not healed correctly,” Engram explained. “There’s a little bit of space, so they are going to put, from my knowledge, joints back to together to let that ligament heal properly and stabilize the joints, so the ligament is not stretched.”

Once he has the surgery, Engram said it becomes a wait-and-see approach regarding when he can begin running again, noting, Just going to take it how it is, and I’ll be back when I’m back.”

Dec. 18, 2019 - Tight end Evan Engram accepts the annual George Young Good Guy award from PFWA President Bob Glauber (right) and Giants chapter president Tom Rock (center).

Tight end Evan Engram (left) accepts the annual "George Young Good Guy Award" from PFWA President Bob Glauber (right) and Giants PFWA chapter president Tom Rock (center).

Engram, who initially didn’t believe he’d need surgery, said that the more he found about the structure of his foot, the more it became evident that surgery was the best option.

It was a tough injury, a tricky injury, and that joint is important in my foot, just how I’m learning how my foot is structured. It just didn’t get better. This is kind of a safety thing future wise why I’m getting this procedure done.”

Engram, the recipient of the Giants Chapter of the Pro Football Writers annual “George Young Good Guy Award” given annually to the player who goes up and beyond in his cooperation with the media, couldn’t hide the disappointment on his face as he answered questions about the injury which cost him the last five games.

Engram, whose season ends with him having started six of the eight games played and catching 44 passes for 467 yards and three touchdowns, was on pace for 88 receptions for 934 yards and six touchdowns given his averages.

“It’s tough. I definitely want to be out there with the team. I was having some success, and we were doing good things as a football team,” Engram said.

“Pretty much out of my control. I didn’t choose to be in this position, but it’s all part of a plan. I have the utmost faith in the path forward, and I can’t wait to attack this process and get back to the player that I know I am and the player that I know I’m going to be for this team.”

This year, the Giants will have to make a decision regarding the option year on his rookie deal. If the Giants pick that up, Engram could cost them around $6 million in 2021.

But the tight end said he’s not thinking about that right now and is instead focused on being ready for training camp next year.

One hundred percent, yeah,” he said when asked if he would indeed be ready for training camp. 

“From the window they gave me, I’ll be more than ready for training camp. Like I said, just going to attack the process and attack each day. Just try to get back as soon as possible.”