Barkley (ankle) has been ruled out for Thursday's game at San Francisco, Dan Salomone of the Giants' official site reports.
Barkley sprained his right ankle in the last few minutes of this past Sunday's 31-28 win in Arizona. After he was listed as a non-participant on the Giants' first two Week 3 practice reports, the team has opted to hold him out Thursday, likely due to the short turnaround between games. Barkley thus will have more than two weeks to recover from the initial injury before New York next takes the field Oct. 2 against the Seahawks. In the meantime, Matt Breida is expected to lead the Giants backfield, with Gary Brightwell, Eric Gray and practice-squad member Taiwan Jones on hand for any reps out of the backfield that linger.