Giants lose center Jon Halapio for the season

It didn’t seem as if it could get much worse for the Giants’ offensive line after Sunday night’s loss to the Cowboys. And then it did.

The team announced Monday that center Jon Halapio fractured his lower right leg and ankle in the third quarter; the injuries will require surgery and cost him the season. Halapio, who won the spot during training camp, will be replaced by John Greco, Pat Shurmur said. Greco came into the game Sunday after Halapio went down. They’ll also ready Spencer Pulley, who was inactive for the first two games, Shurmur said.

“He went from a guy that was on the practice squad to a starter, and I just feel for him,” defensive tackle Damon Harrison said. “All that hard work and to have something like this happen – he had a great summer, a great offseason and actually, the last couple years he was doing great things and was able to crack the starting lineup. I feel for him because he did everything right. He did everything that was asked of him.”

Manning said he would conference with Greco and Pulley at least twice this week, as he usually does with the offensive line, but was confident that Greco, a 10-year veteran, would be able to jump right in.

“He’s a vet and he’s been here and he knows what he’s doing, so I thought he did a good job,” Manning said. He was also clear that he didn’t pin all the sacks on his line.

“It’s not just the offensive line. When sacks are happening, obviously the offensive line gets blamed most of the time, but that’s not necessarily the case. You’ve got running backs, you’ve got quarterbacks, you’ve got receivers.”

Notes & quotes: Shurmur confirmed that Eli Apple sustained a groin inury in Sunday’s game but said he still did not know the extent of the injury.

By Laura Albanese

laura.albanese@newsday.com@AlbaneseLaura

Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.