Saquon Barkley posts inspirational Instagram after devastating injury

The New York Giants star running back releases statement after tearing his ACL on Sunday.

2020 was supposed to be a year of bright spots for the New York Giants faithful. They had a new head coach, free agent acquisitions and a young offense that had the potential to take the league by storm. Unfortunately, this year has been brutal towards many individuals, and that includes running back Saquon Barkley. During Sunday’s Week 2 matchup against the Chicago Bears, Barkley went down with a knee injury, which was later confirmed to be a torn ACL, effectively ending his season.

After a scrub of his Instagram account on Sunday evening, Barkley posted a photo of him being helped off the field by coach Joe Judge and the team’s training staff with the caption, “gonna be a hell of a story.” Those were the very words uttered by Judge during a press conference on Monday, who said he “won’t fall asleep on 26.”

Barkley has a huge comeback in mind

The injury occurred during the second quarter of the Bears game, when he took a carry to the outside and was tackled out of bounds by safety Eddie Jackson. You can see that Barkley tweaked his right knee, and the running back instantly began punching the ground, unable to get back on his feet.

An initial in-stadium test showed that Barkley had potentially torn his ACL. Following an MRI on Monday, Barkley was determined to have torn that knee ligament, along with a partially torn meniscus and a strained MCL. Due to this, Barkley is unable to undergo surgery for the next two-to-four weeks until the swelling in his right knee goes down.

Prior to the injury, Barkley had to deal with the aftermath of the Tiki Barber drama. Barber, the Giants’ all-time leading rusher, criticized Barkley’s ability as a pass protector on his CBS Sports Network radio show, “Tiki and Tierney,” and said if he can’t improve upon that, then he can never be an every-down back in the NFL. Of course, Barkley had to deal with that unnecessary noise and media attention all week but took it in stride, saying that he’s going to use Barber’s critique as a challenge. Sadly, that will now have to wait until next season.

Barkley knows what it takes to work back from injuries. Just last year, he suffered a high ankle sprain and only missed three games, where he was initially expected to miss four-to-six contests. You can expect Barkley to rehab his right knee and come back stronger than ever in 2021, which will be the start of his new story.