Malik Nabers' Second Surgery Draws Concern From Former NFL Doctor
The NFL season is still several months away, but New York Giants fans are starting to get nervous about Malik Nabers.
Nabers, 22, suffered a torn ACL last September against the Los Angeles Chargers. He had his initial surgery performed on Oct. 28. Unfortunately for the Pro Bowl wideout, he's been dealing with knee stiffness throughout his recovery.
On May 13, Dan Duggan of The Athletic reported that Nabers underwent a second surgery on his knee to remove scar tissue.
"I'm told the second surgery took place 'multiple weeks ago' and it was described as a 'clean up,'" Duggan said. "This second surgery isn't expected to impact Nabers' recovery timeline."
Former NFL team doctor David J. Chao believes Nabers' second surgery indicates a loss of motion. Naturally, that led to fans panicking online.
"Ayone who thinks he'll be the same player he was before the injury is crazy," one fan said.
"Genuinely unbelievable how is he the only one to have an issue post surgery," a second fan wrote. "[Expletive] this team."
"We might see a lot of Likely, Fields, Slayton, Mooney for the first couple weeks of the regular season," another fan commented.
Will Malik Nabers be ready for Week 1?
According to ESPN's Jordan Raanan, the Giants are hopeful that Nabers will be ready for their season opener against the Dallas Cowboys. That'll be the first "Sunday Night Football" game of the year.
While the Giants haven't lost hope for Week 1, they did push back Nabers' timeline.
"New York was optimistic at the start of the year that Nabers would be ready for the beginning of training camp in late July," Raanan wrote. "That has since been pushed back to later in the summer given the difficulty of his recovery."
Nabers was outstanding as a rookie, hauling in 109 passes for 1,204 yards and seven touchdowns. Hopefully, we'll see that version of him back on the gridiron this fall.
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This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 7:44 AM.