Aug 24, 2008 - 5:34 PM
0 shoutsEAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The New York Giants will have to defend their Super Bowl title without Osi Umenyiora.
The Pro Bowl defensive end needs surgery to repair a torn lateral meniscus in his left knee and will miss the entire season, the Giants announced Sunday.
Umenyiora, who led the Giants with 13 sacks last season, suffered the injury during Saturday night's preseason game against the New York Jets.
After X-rays taken Saturday came back negative, Umenyiora underwent an MRI on Sunday at the Hospital for Special Surgery to determine the extent of the damage.
The results of the exam were anything but positive to Giants head coach Tom Coughlin, who held a conference call Sunday afternoon to discuss the loss of New York's lone representative at last season's Pro Bowl.
"My No. 1 concern was about Osi," Coughlin said. "I did talk with him on the phone a short while ago and told him he's in everyone's thoughts and prayers.
"He was obviously subdued, but he assured me that he was OK."
Umeyiora, who was examined by team physician Dr. Russell Warren, will undergo surgery Tuesday.
"Dr. Warren has convinced us this repair will put him in a great shape going forward," Coughlin said. "And because of that, we're certainly 100 percent behind the decision. We just hope the surgery goes well and that it is a full recovery and that he's better than ever shortly down the road."
Umenyiora, 27, appeared in all 16 games last season and was the top pass rusher on a defensive line that helped spur the Giants to an improbable title run. His absence will considerably hamper a defense that already is without defensive end Michael Strahan, who retired this offseason.
A seven-time Pro Bowler, the 36-year-old Strahan retired this past June, ending a record-setting 16-year career spent exclusively with the Giants.
When asked if the Giants had considered luring Strahan out of retirement, Coughlin admitted that he had recently spoken to the four-time All-Pro but claimed that the conversation centered around the future Hall of Famer's new broadcasting career.
Strahan, who ranks fifth on the NFL's all-time list with 141 1/2 sacks, will work on Fox Sports' pregame shows on Sundays this season.
"I haven't really talked to anyone at this point in time about anything," Coughlin said. "I am sure that (general manager) Jerry Reese and I and ownership will look long and hard at whatever options are out there and do what is best here at this point in time."
Even without Strahan, the Giants figured to have one of the league's best defensive lines - a unit headlined by Umenyiora and defensive end Justin Tuck, who had 10 sacks last season.
Now the Giants, who open their season September 4 against Washington, will have to play without the top player on a defense that recorded a league-leading 53 sacks last year.
Umenyiora also was outstanding in New York's historic 17-14 upset of the previously unbeaten New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLII.
"He definitely means a lot to this team, and any time a guy like that goes down it kind of hits you right in the throat," Tuck said Saturday.
In Umenyiora's absence, one option for the Giants could be to move linebacker Mathias Kiwanuka back to defensive end.
"That's a question for upper management," said Kiwanuka, New York's first-round draft selection in 2006. "I don't make the decisions around here, so I can't speak intelligently about that."
"I really don't have much to say about that situation," Coughlin said. "I think it is in the best interest of our team and our player that he hears anything that I have to say from me to him first."
Umenyiora was hurt with just under 11 minutes in the second quarter of Saturday's 10-7 loss to the Jets. He was unable to put any weight on the leg and eventually was carted off the field.
A two-time Pro Bowler and an All Pro in 2005, Umenyiora has 41 1/2 sacks in 72 career games with the Giants.
