Saquon Barkley to do “a little bit more” work on Thursday

[Giant]

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Wednesday saw Giants running back Saquon Barkley running and changing direction while working on the side at practice and that’s opened the door to speculation about a return to the lineup well ahead of the recovery timeline reported when he injured his ankle in Week Three.

Giants head coach Pat Shurmur refused to rule him out of Sunday’s game against the Vikings and he fed a bit more fuel into the fire on Thursday. Shurmur again said that it was possible that Barkley plays this weekend and said he’d be ramping up his workload.

Shurmur said, via Tom Rock of Newsday, that Barkley will do “a little bit more’ work on Thursday than he did on Wednesday. He said “we’ll see” when asked if that uptick in work might include involvement in team drills, although reporters at the team’s facility said he was still on the side during the open portion of practice. The injury report will bring word on just what he does during the session.

The Giants have a quick turnaround before facing the Patriots on Thursday in Week Six and any work Barkley does the rest of this week might put him on track to play in that game even if he doesn’t wind up in the lineup this Sunday.