Corey Ballentine: Gunshot wound “worse than what people thought”

[Giant]

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Giants rookie Corey Ballentine will live with what happened to him on April 28 the rest of his life, as he was shot and his best friend was killed the night he was drafted into the NFL.

And while he’s recovered to compete in training camp, the bullet wound to his rear was more serious than many realized.

“It was worse than what people thought it was,’’ Ballentine told Paul Schwartz of the New York Post.

Ballentine said the bullet is still lodged in his body, and he was told it would set off metal detectors at airports. When it entered his buttocks, it cracked his hip bone, and doctors told him at the time he wouldn’t be able to run for six weeks.

He wasn’t able to participate in minicamp, but started working his way back during OTAs, and has recovered fully and appears safely among the 53 players the Giants will keep.

“Bones heal,’’ Ballentine said. “I’m just glad it wasn’t worse. It could have hit an artery or something like that. I’m really just glad I could recover from it and I’m still here.’’

While the loss of his friend Dwane Simmons will linger, Ballentine has said he wants to honor Simmons by playing well, and so far in Giants camp he has.

“What it really taught me was I’ve been through so much to get here, you know, and I never realized, I don’t think I gave myself enough credit for the things I’ve had to push though as far as adversity,’’ Ballentine said. “Just pushing through that, it kinda put things in perspective. It was kinda like ‘You’re stronger than you think you are mentally.’ ’’

And now that he’s physically well, he can continue to prove it.