Here’s good news for Giants’ Andrew Thomas after season-ending foot surgery

The Giants got devastating injury news this week, when their elite left tackle, Andrew Thomas , underwent season-ending foot surgery.

But there good news for Thomas: His injury should not impact the quality of his play when he returns. Nor is he at elevated risk for re-injuring his foot.

Those were the big takeaways from NJ Advance Media's interview this week with Dr. Kenneth Jung , an orthopedic foot and ankle surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles who also is the Rams' foot and ankle injury consultant.

"The risk [for re-injury] comes from occupational hazard [of playing football] rather than the injury [itself]," Jung said. "If it heals stable, which I assume it will, there is no elevated risk [for re-injury]."

After a rough rookie season in 2020, Thomas spent the next two years becoming an elite left tackle. But injuries (first a hamstring last season, now a foot) have wrecked his past two seasons. By the time next season begins, he will have played in just 16 games (including six this year) and missed 18 from 2023-24.

When 2025 opens, Thomas will have two seasons left on what is essentially a four-year, $69 million contract. He will need to show he can be healthy and productive, in order to justify that deal .

But even though Thomas is a 6-foot-5, 315-pound man playing on a surgically repaired foot, his Lisfranc (mid-foot) injury should not impact his durability or performance, said Jung.

"It should not be a career-threatening injury, if everything heals properly," Jung said.

Thomas' recovery window probably will be four to six months, said Jung. At that point, Thomas should be fully back. That would be mid-April. Which means Thomas could participate, to some degree, in spring practices — and should be completely back by training camp.

Post-injury arthritis is the main thing that would impact Thomas' ability to move around during football games. But that is not an immediate concern, even though it could be something he will have to deal with when he retires.

With Lisfranc injuries, players are "going to have a higher chance of developing post-traumatic arthritis," Jung said. "A heavier individual is going to have a higher chance of that. [But] it's not going to happen in the next two or three years unless it's catastrophic. We tell these players, 'It most likely may not affect you while you're playing.' Arthritis is not going to set in immediately. That would be the most limiting thing with this type of injury."

Lisfranc injuries can take different forms, but the ones that require surgery often result from torn ligaments — and bones getting out of alignment and separating in a severe manner. Jung — who obviously has not examined Thomas — said there are sometimes (but not always) bone fractures that accompany Lisfranc injuries.

"It's kind of describing the [specific] joint," Jung said of Lisfranc injuries.

As for the Lisfranc injuries that require surgery, Jung said, "If the normal bone relationship is disrupted, you know that the ligaments are torn. You're doing surgery to reestablish the alignment of the bone, to allow the ligaments to heal in proper positions. You can even repair or reconstruct the ligament. You're trying to have a stable joint for the return to play."

What does the surgery involve?

"Typically, you're putting screws — or plates and screws — into the bones," Jung said. "Those hold the bones in the proper relationship. If there are fractures, it may require a little more hardware to get those fractures aligned and restored in a normal alignment."