This is an old article, but I found it interesting.
Ahmad Bradshaw ran on Wednesday for the first time since a trio of surgeries in January. And it was also the first time in months the Giants running back ran without the nagging fear of injuring his ailing feet further.
"It felt great," Bradshaw said at the Giants' practice facility Thursday morning. "I've just got to get more balanced and more comfortable with it. Just from limping for the last three months, you've still got a little limp in there and still a little pain. But it's not as bad as it was during the season."
Last season, Bradshaw developed a crack in the fifth metatarsal bone of each foot, which posed the risk of fracturing all the way through and ending his season. He had offseason surgery to put a screw in each foot, as well as to remove irritating bone spurs from his right ankle, a total of three surgeries.
Bradshaw said his ankle feels like "a new ankle," but the recovery from the foot procedures has been a slower process. The surgery was painful and the screws still ache as he stands and moves on his feet. The screws will stay in and act like an extra bone to strengthen the outer edge of his feet.
"Right now, I'm just trying to take this process slow," Bradshaw said. "Getting as healthy as I can. I want the bone and screws to heal perfect. I just want them to be in the best position, so I can be in the best position during training camp and during the season."
Bradshaw expects to be ready by training camp. Starting to run was an important step forward. When he did so Wednesday, he experimented to see if he could alter his bow-legged style -- which puts pressure on those outer bones -- but found that difficult.
"It's tough to correct," Bradshaw said. "They tried to say, 'Try to stay on the inside of your feet,' but to me it's so natural to run on the outside of my feet. ... At one point I'm sure there was a time when the bones probably broke, and I didn’t even know, it just started aching and I got to running a little more. You just never know with my style of running."
Along with Bradshaw, starter Brandon Jacobs (partially torn meniscus) and second-year back Andre Brown (ruptured Achilles) are also coming off surgeries. With a backfield that is talented but uncertain, the Giants could very well look to use a pick on a running back in next week's draft.
"We’re hoping people can come back and be healthy; that’s important," Giants GM Jerry Reese said in his annual pre-draft press conference Thursday. "But obviously our starter and backup were banged up a little bit the past season, and they’re on a good pace to be healthy going into the season."
"Sure, there’s always some thought about, 'What if this guy goes down right away?' " Reese added. "So you always try to create enough depth at those positions to get yourself through. But again, you only have 53 spots; you cant have 10 running backs."
Bradshaw has heard the external pre-draft chatter, but also said he and Jacobs are motivated by the "ifs and buts and everybody doubting us."
"It's all up to the Giants who they want, but us backs feel we’ll be fine -- which everybody should," Bradshaw said, adding: "That hurt us a lot last year in the backfield -- we’d been hurt, not being more explosive, and with Brandon being hurt and not being more physical. But a lot of those things are fixed now, and Brandon and I both feel we’ll be fine."
http://www.nj.com/giants/index.ssf/2010/04...ng_again_a.html