Breno Giacomini finally stepped forward Thursday to shed some light on the mysterious back ailment that has sidelined the Jets offensive tackle for all of training camp and the preseason.
Giacomini’s outlook still remains clear as mud, though, with the veteran blocker admitting in at times worried tones that he has no idea when he will return or how much of the regular season he could miss.
“I want to be back yesterday,” Giacomini said in his first interview session since June. “I really do, man. I hate missing any of this, but injuries are part of the game. We’ve just got to deal with it and take the right steps forward.”
Giacomini said the injury is a muscle strain accompanied by spasms in his lower back he suffered in the Jets’ veteran minicamp two months ago.
Giacomini insisted the injury is not to any disks in his back, though avoided the question when asked if he had received epidural injections to treat the lingering ailment.
“I can’t go into details of what I’ve done besides the fact I’ve been doing treatment here and trying to get some anti-inflammatories and stuff like that,” said Giacomini, who has been on the Physically Unable to Perform list.
Giacomini suffered the injury on the first day of minicamp but didn’t become concerned until it continued to bother him through the July 4th weekend almost a month later.
The Jets have been rotating little-used backups Brent Qvale and Ben Ijalana at right tackle in place of Giacomini throughout the preseason, an arrangement coach Todd Bowles said could continue into the regular season.
Giacomini, though, said he is making steady improvement and vowed to return at some point. He just doesn’t know when, exactly.
“I got into a three-point stance yesterday, and I’m doing some good things,” Giacomini, 30, said. “I’m about 80 percent speed right now. It’s not where I need to be to be on the field.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Bowles said Saturday’s preseason matchup with the Giants would be important to potentially deciding the Qvale and Ijalana competition because of the presence of Big Blue pass rushers Jason Pierre-Paul and Olivier Vernon.
Bowles also said the Jets could pursue an outside option, such as a trade, if he doesn’t like what he sees from Qvale or Ijalana.
“They’ve been going back and forth, so this game will be big,” Bowles said. “They have two premier defensive ends, so it’ll be good to see them both against those types of people.”
The Jets have moved the lockers of Ryan Fitzpatrick, center Nick Mangold and free-agent running back Matt Forte together, much to Fitzpatrick’s amusement.
“Yeah, it’s sweet,” Fitzpatrick said Thursday. “I’m next to my buddy [Mangold] and my new buddy [Forte]. There’s a lot of experience over here and there’s a lot of ‘ohs’ and aches and things when we get up off our stools. This is kind of the old part of the locker room.”