If Giants’ Justin Pugh suits up Sunday (a big if), he won’t be 100 percent

A right MCL sprain kept Justin Pugh out of the past few games, casting some doubt that he will be back on the field this Sunday at the Pittsburgh Steelers.

It looked good for Pugh as of last week but a tweak last Wednesday leading up to the Giants win at the Cleveland Browns saw the left guard sidelined for at least another game. Pugh spoke on Tuesday and sounded promising but didn’t commit to being able to be on the field this weekend.

“I wouldn’t say no way for Sunday, but I wouldn’t say 100 percent I’m in for Sunday. It’s really how my knee responds to going out and doing more and more,” Pugh said. “I know for sure I’m not going try and push it too much because I don’t want to keep having setbacks and missing extra weeks so I’m going to make sure I’m 100 percent and doing it the right way.”

Pugh said that last Wednesday, he made it through the individual portion of practice only to re-injure the knee on the first play of team reps.

“I got to see how it goes when I get out there. I got to take it day-by-day and really just see where my knee’s at, just keep stacking good days; and that’s what I had done, I was doing that and I had a good day and I tried to push it a little bit, I wanted to get those reps on Wednesday instead of just doing individual and then next day take some practice reps,” Pugh said.

“So that’s what I’m going to do this week, make sure I go out there and get some individuals tomorrow and if that goes well, get some team reps on Thursday and then just keep pushing. If you try to be too aggressive, you try to come back too soon on it, and that’s what I did, I tried to come back too soon.”