Lockout could alter Seubert's rehab plan

Rich Seubert will be rehabbing his leg Friday. He just doesn't know where and with whom.

As the NFL owners and the players' union agreed Thursday on a 24-hour extension to their negotiating, Seubert, like many players, had plenty of questions. He wasn't even sure if he was supposed to show up at the Giants' facility for his daily physical therapy session Friday, or if he would be allowed in if he did go there. He said he planned on heading to the Timex Performance Center in the morning, where he could be faced with real or metaphorical padlocks.

Seubert, the longtime Giants guard, played center for most of the 2010 season. He was, according to many, including general manager Jerry Reese, the team's most valuable player, but he suffered a gnarly right knee injury in the final game of the season. It required surgery to repair a dislocated kneecap along with ligament and tendon damage.

He's walking without crutches, doing exercises to strengthen the leg and all the rest of the rehabilitation required to come back from that kind of procedure. But if there is a lockout at midnight Friday following the extension, or at any point in the coming days, he won't be allowed to rely on the Giants' in-house medical staff to help guide him through this critical time in his recovery.

"We have the best trainers working for us every day,'' Seubert told Newsday Thursday, "and it's kind of silly to have to go somewhere else to do a rehab . . . I have all the respect in the world for Ronnie Barnes and Byron Hansen, Steve Kennelly and Leigh Weiss. I've been through a lot, and those guys always got me back on the field. I just wish this would all get worked out and we could continue on the path with those guys.''

A lockout would have made the situation clear. Seubert would have gone to Parisi's Fitness Center in Fair Lawn, N.J., where he plans to work with Twin Boro Physical Therapy if he doesn't have access to the Giants' people. But with the extension, he and other players around the league who rely on their teams to get them back in shape after offseason surgeries are in limbo. Not quite locked out, not quite Employee of the Month.

Seubert will have access to Russell Warren, the Giants' team physician who performed his surgery and is not an employee of the team. The 31-year-old lineman has an appointment with Warren in about two weeks. But the rest of the Giants' staff would be off limits during a lockout.

"They were told not to have contact with us,'' Seubert said. "Nobody has told me I can't call them, but I'm pretty sure they're not going to want to talk to us when we do.''

Seubert is still focusing on a return for the start of the 2011 season - whenever that may be. He was told he could expect to be running seven months after his surgery, which would mean early August, but he thinks he's ahead of schedule already. He ditched his crutches and walks with a cane, but he's hoping to get the go-ahead to start running by late spring or early summer.

Right now, it's just a lot of waiting. Waiting to heal, and waiting to see where he will heal.

"It's all football related, yes, but this is my life,'' Seubert said of sitting through the negotiations.

"They have time to get it done and hopefully they do, because football is a great game and I want to play. I know the guys want to play football. They don't want to be sitting at home.

"I guess I'm just glad that I'm at the stage of my career where I've been through this, I've been through the rehab. I know the system, and I know how to train on my own. If we are locked out, I won't fall off and get left behind the 8-ball.''