After Injuring Knee, Giants" Thomas Repaired Spirit EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - After tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee for a third time during training camp in 2012, Giants cornerback Terrell Thomas left his family and his new home in New Jersey and moved to Pensacola, Fla., to begin an arduous rehabilitation. He rented an apartment near the Gulf of Mexico, hoping the vista and the solitude would soothe him. Thomas was still trying to overcome the waves of panic and anger, the pangs of depression. The $28 million contract he had signed with the Giants was gone, and there were serious doubts that he would ever play football again. Thomas had met with therapists and had visited his pastor in Los Angeles, where he grew up, and they helped. But Thomas needed more, needed inspiration he could see, and not long after beginning his rehabilitation work in Florida, he met Julie McClure, 28, working out in the training pool. A car accident in December 2011 had left her left side mangled and her right femur shattered. She needed 15 operations on her knees, hip and ankle. They began talking each day. Thomas began feeling better and better. "Her spirit was so uplifting," Thomas said. She was always smiling. She just had a good spirit. It touched me. He added: "It helped me realize that there are a lot of people in a lot worse situations than you are. So suck it up. On Aug. 7, Thomas was cleared to begin practicing. He and Carolina Panthers linebacker Thomas Davis believe that should Thomas play in an N.F.L. game, he will become only the second player, after Davis, to return from three A.C.L. operations. The road to recovery is not complete; Thomas was held out of last Saturday's preseason game and said he considered himself doubtful for Sunday's game. His progress in practice has been slow but steady, and he has worked mainly in nickel formations. For Thomas, a starter in 2009 and 2010 who had five interceptions each season, the slip down the depth chart has been challenging. But Thomas has maintained his high spirits with a focus on just being able to play again, in a Giants uniform. The team gave him a one-year, $630,000 incentive-laden deal that could net him well more than $1 million if he stays healthy. That "if" remains suspect. The Giants are just beginning to see the effect of Dr. James Andrews's latest surgical efforts on Thomas's ill-fated knee. "He's showed burst," the team's defensive coordinator, Perry Fewell, said. He showed the ability to come out of a break when he was in man coverage. We're going to take it day by day with him. But it was exciting to see him back in action. In the weeks after Thomas's injury, which he sustained when he slipped during a drill, Thomas sank into a state of dejection, haunted by a cyclone of regrets, doubts and spoiled dreams. He was frustrated and angry and, worse, lacking the drive that had pushed him through his second A.C.L. recovery. "He would not even answer my calls for about a month," his agent, Doug Hendrickson, said. Thomas stayed home in New Jersey and rehabilitated at the Hospital for Special Surgery, but being near the Giants only made the mental angst worse. He went to Los Angeles, where he rehabilitated after his second A.C.L. tear, but driving along the same roads and visiting the same doctors did not help either. "All these things were running through my head," Thomas said. It was tough to deal with. Thomas waffled about whether to risk another injury, which could potentially cause permanent damage. Hendrickson said Thomas's relatively young age (28) made it more reasonable he could attempt a comeback. There was also Davis, of the Panthers, who kept in contact with Thomas throughout his recovery process, urging him on and offering advice. Davis's own recovery from a third A.C.L. tear was nearly complete when he found out Thomas had torn his again. They had met at a Pro Athletes Outreach event about six months earlier and connected, not knowing that their careers would soon be linked. In regular text messages and phone conversations, Davis told Thomas, "Let's make history," referring to their comebacks.