Tuck, coaches look forward to his return

Justin Tuck is one practice away from a return.

If he gets through Friday's workout without aggravating the neck and groin injuries that have forced him to miss the last three games, he'll be on the field Sunday against the Dolphins. He practiced Wednesday and Thursday without incident.

"I'm encouraged with how practices went,'' he said, "and hopefully we can continue to grow and continue to have good days out there and make it into Sunday as healthy as possible."

Tuck has spoken about how trying it has been on him to miss four of the first six games this season, and he said Thursday that he is looking forward to his return. But he's not the only one. Defensive coordinator Perry Fewell called Tuck's anticipated return "a welcome relief."

How hard has it been for Fewell to coach without Tuck available?

"Harder than I can explain," he said. "When you have a guy who has talent, who knows how to play the game, who is your captain, and he's on the sideline, that's very difficult."

Tom Coughlin said Tuck's return gives the Giants an opportunity to be creative with personnel groupings. "If we can get more players of his caliber on the field, the more flexibility we have," Coughlin said. "It's going to provide some opportunities for us to get some matchups that are in our favor."

Earlier this week, Tuck cautioned the Giants about overcompensating for his return. He said he did not want to be a disturbance and hoped the Giants would not "try to reinvent the wheel" with him back on the field.

"I'm just going to try to stay out of the way," Tuck said Tuesday. "We've had a lot of success, especially rushing the passer. The last thing I want to do is come back in and they think they have to throw me in these situations because I need to make plays or whatever . . . I don't want to throw a monkey wrench in the whole process."

Fewell said that, to the contrary, he spent the bye week simplifying the defense, not expanding it. As for Tuck's return creating a disruption, Fewell could only laugh.

"No comment," he said.

Defensive tackle Chris Canty was equally amused by Tuck's suggestion that he could be a distraction, and even called across the locker room to see if Tuck actually said such a thing.

"Football players, we do get hit in the head a lot," he said. "We're going to put him through the concussion test and see if he's all there."