Jason Pierre-Paul Injury Update: Giants DE Undergoes Surgery on Core Muscle

New York Giants defensive lineman Jason Pierre-Paul underwent surgery on a core muscle injury and is expected to miss at least the rest of the regular season.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Network reported the recovery is expected to take six weeks.

Pierre-Paul posted a picture of himself Wednesday morning in a hospital bed:

The 27-year-old defensive end was enjoying a resurgent campaign for the Giants. He racked up 53 combined tackles, seven sacks and three forced fumbles across 12 games, with New York going 8-4 to move itself firmly into the playoff picture.

Pierre-Paul was forced to leave last week's loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a groin issue. Afterward, Pat Leonard and Seth Walder of the New York Daily News passed along comments from fellow defender Olivier Vernon about the impact of Pierre-Paul's absence.

"Man, that was a blow," Vernon said. "That was a blow for us. Hopefully we can get him back for the Dallas game. We've just got to make sure he's healthy."

Not only will Pierre-Paul be absent for the marquee NFC East clash with the Cowboys on Sunday, but the Giants would likely need to advance at least two rounds in the postseason before he'd be ready to return. And that's if everything goes according to plan during the recovery process.

It's unfortunate timing for both New York and the veteran edge-rusher. He's shown signs of getting back to his prior levels of production, highlighted by a three-sack game against the Cleveland Browns in Week 12, after working back from a severe hand injury suffered in a 2015 fireworks accident.

Pierre-Paul discussed his return to form with Steve Politi of NJ Advance Media in November.

"I just wanted to get back just to show that no matter what's going on in your life, you can overcome it, and I wanted to just show everybody out there that's possible," he said. "What I went through is simple, man. You've got people that have cancer and everything. Those are the real hurt people, you know?"

Kerry Wynn is likely to see most of the playing time opposite Vernon to fill the void up front. It could also lead to some additional snaps for Owa Odighizuwa and Romeo Okwara as part of the rotation.