Kenny Phillips not ready to practice

When the Giants hit the field Sunday afternoon in Albany for the first practice of training camp safety Kenny Phillips will again be off on the side, working on his own.

There was hope that perhaps Phillips would be ready to resume work with the team but the serious micro-fracture surgery on his left knee has left him needing more time to get back to full football activities.

"He'll be with the trainers until the trainers are willing to let him begin to practice,'' Tom Coughlin said this morning. "I'm sure when that happens it will be one a day.''

The Giants will surely take one-a-day practice out of Phillips, who missed the final 14 games last season with an arthritic condition in his knee that prompted surgery. Phillips this spring expressed all sorts of optimism that he'd be ready to go for camp but he'll have to wait a bit longer.

"They're going to work with him on the side and determine exactly where he is,'' Coughlin said. "Part of this is watching after a workout how the player comes back, how long it takes for his recovery, is there any swelling, those are the things they got to determine. They’ve worked with him all spring and they've monitored him all summer. Because of the nature and the seriousness of the injury they certainly are not going to rush back out there until they're 100 percent sure he can go through a two-hour practice. That's all fine and dandy.''

Asked if he is confident Phillips will be able to practice during the 20-day camp in Albany, Coughlin said "Oh, definitely, I expect to get him as much as a week or two.''

The newest Giants player, linebacker Keith Bulluck, will be on the field this Sunday but will only work once a day coming off surgery only seven months ago to repair a torn ACL. Coughlin said he's undecided if he’ll ask Bulluck to take part in the conditioning run earlier in the day on Sunday but plans on him practicing for the first time with his new team later that afternoon.

"I'm sure he'll work that first day and then once a day is really all we can expect as we move him back to the highly-conditioned athlete he normally is,'' Coughlin said.

Bulluck, 33, spent the first 10 years of his NFL career with the Titans and started 127 consecutive games before tearing his left ACL in the 15th game of the season.

"I like the fact he's a no-nonsense guy, he's a veteran football player, he's 33-years old, he's only had the one serious injury, he's played consistently for a long time in a very aggressive defense, he is known as a physical player, he's a tough guy, he's a Syracuse guy, how can he be anything but that,'' Coughlin said. "He's a guy I think brings a lot to the table. For a lot of our young guys he is going to be the kind of focused, physical football player that can lead by example and makes a good fit for our team.''

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(nypost.com)