Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz said during OTAs that he was 80 percent recovered from the torn patellar injury that ended his 2014 season. On Tuesday, he updated his status and spoke optimistically about what's next.
"I'm 81 percent now," he said with a smile, according to Newsday. "I'm going north. That's all that matters. I'm going up."
Cruz has not taken part in any on-field work during the Giants' offseason program. His goal is to pass the team's conditioning test and pre-camp physical. He believes he could pass the conditioning test now -- the physical is more of an uncertainty.
It's a reminder of the severity of Cruz's knee injury, which has been known to permanently rob athletes of their explosiveness.
"Obviously you want to push it and make sure you continue on the path of getting back to 100 percent, but you need your recovery days too," he said. "The training staff and myself are working on putting a regimen together that includes both of those things, so we'll see how that goes. But it'll definitely be a little of both. I don't want to come in sluggish or with tired muscles, I want to come in fresh, ready to run and ready to go."
In an ideal world, the Giants will have both Cruz and Odell Beckham Jr. (hamstring strain) available for the start of training camp. Beckham's minicamp absence appears precautionary, while Cruz seems to be in the midst of a fight to get back where he was.
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