New York Giants wide receiver Steve Smith admitted he’s worried about losing explosiveness after undergoing microfracture knee surgery late last season.
According to Bart Hubbuch of the New York Post, Smith’s cause for concern stems from watching teammate Kenny Phillips struggle to get up to speed in his first year back from the same procedure.
“Kenny Phillips lost explosiveness due to microfracture surgery,” he said, “and [I'm] concerned about the same thing.”
Smith said he is scheduled to begin running in May, but the repaired knee still feels “ginger” at this point.
The 25-year-old was on pace to match his career-year in 2009, racking up 529 yards and three touchdowns in only nine games last year. Many officials also attribute Smith’s absence in the Giants short-yardage passing game to Eli Manning’s career-high 25 interceptions in 2010.
Smith insists he’ll be ready by the start of the season. Whether that is accurate or not will be determined closer to the actual start of the year.
