NFL

Giants lose Hixon after knee injury at New Meadowlands Stadium

There was relief on the face of Tom Coughlin when yesterday morning he reiterated that he believed the knee injury suffered the day before by Domenik Hixon was not serious.

The Giants coach described Hixon’s right knee as “sore” and “tight” but added “hopefully that’s all it is.”

Hoping wasn’t enough for Hixon and the Giants, who broke the golden rule of offseason workouts: Come out unscathed.

Hixon, their best kickoff and punt returner, will miss the entire 2010 season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, an injury suffered Tuesday afternoon at New Meadowlands Stadium.

What at first was believed to be nothing more than painful but manageable hyperextended knee turned into a devastating blow to Hixon. Coughlin spoke before he knew the results of Hixon’s examination with Dr. Russ Warren. An MRI exam revealed the torn ACL.

Hixon will undergo surgery sometime in the next two weeks. The injury put a damper on this three-day mandatory mini-camp for the Giants. He was hurt in the first-ever practice in the new stadium as he moved backward to field a punt. It appeared Hixon’s right foot stuck a bit in the new FieldTurf playing surface.

“He got his foot stuck in there,” Coughlin said. “You can see on tape he is turning a little bit and he does have a little hyperextended kind of thing.”

Team general manager Jerry Reese said he did not think the field had anything to do with the injury.

“I was looking right at him . . . it didn’t look like his foot got caught, it looked like he was weaving a little bit and his knee just buckled a little bit,” Reese said. “That’s how I saw it. It could have happened right here on this grass field.”

Not wanting a link between the injury and the playing surface, FieldTurf spokesman Chip Namias yesterday was relieved to hear Reese wasn’t blaming the field.

“Believe me, if they felt the field had anything to do with the injury, they’d be screaming about it,” Namias said.

Players have said the new playing surface is soft, with. Kicker Lawrence Tynes called the field “mushy.” Apparently, that is to be expected.

“It needs a couple of weeks of activity to be broken in, to settle,” Namias said.

Reese did express concern about the seams showing near mid-field, where the interchangeable Giants and Jets logos are moved in and out on trays. A FieldTurf crew after the Jets were off the field yesterday attended to those concerns.

“We hope to have all the kinks out before we get on it again,” Reese said.

As the team’s No. 4 receiver, Hixon – who as a restricted free agent signed a one-year contract for $1.68 million — last season caught 15 passes for 187 yards and one touchdown but his real impact came on special teams. He averaged a sterling 15.1 yards on 17 punt returns last season and 22.6 yards on 57 kickoff returns.

There is no proven option as a returner. Figure D.J. Ware will be given a look on kickoffs as well as Ahmad Bradshaw and possibly second-year running back Andre Brown, who missed his entire rookie year with a torn Achilles tendon. On punts, Sinorice Moss, Aaron Ross, Mario Manningham and maybe even safety Antrel Rolle could be given a look.

“We have some guys we think can step up in that spot,” Reese said. “The guy who comes to mind right away is Manningham, he can do some return specialist stuff for us. I think he can be a punt returner. We have kick returners, my concern would be as a punt returner right now. We think Aaron Ross, who was a punt returner in college, can do some work for us back there. And obviously we will look to see if there are any trade possibilities for us back there.”

paul.schwartz@nypost.com