Jaxson Dart’s injured left knee is being evaluated and no decisions have been made, New York Giants coach John Harbaugh said Tuesday in the aftermath of the starting quarterback exiting the game at the Los Angeles Rams on Monday night.
Harbaugh refused to confirm reports that Dart’s injury is worse than the initial diagnosis of a sprained medial collateral ligament, leading to an extended absence and possibly season-ending surgery. After the 28-6 loss, Harbaugh said it was “in the neighborhood” and that an MRI would lead to more information.
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New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, center, watches from the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, Calif., Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, left, walks off the field with linebacker Abdul Carter (3) after an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, Calif., Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart (6) walks off the field with an injury during the first half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, Calif., Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart (6) walks off the field with an injury during the first half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, Calif., Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
“It’s an ongoing conversation about the health of a player, of a person,” Harbaugh said on a video call with reporters. “We’ve got to prepare for the range of possibilities.”
Harbaugh said the team would reveal details and a timeframe in due time after the evaluation is complete. He expressed confidence in backup Jameis Winston's ability to step in for however long Dart is out.
See AP’s full NFL coverage here
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, center, watches from the sideline during the second half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, Calif., Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart, left, walks off the field with linebacker Abdul Carter (3) after an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, Calif., Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart (6) walks off the field with an injury during the first half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, Calif., Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart (6) walks off the field with an injury during the first half of an NFL football game against the Los Angeles Rams in Inglewood, Calif., Monday, Sept. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Caroline Brehman)
LONDON (AP) — Marlon James and Douglas Stuart have a chance to become only the fifth author to win the Booker Prize twice after both were named Tuesday on the shortlist for arguably the U.K.’s most prestigious fiction accolade.
Judges of the award whittled down the 13 semifinalists announced in July to six on Tuesday and said the shortlisted books are “moving, pacey, funny, violent, intriguing, horrifying and hopeful.” They were selected from an original 163 submissions.
The Booker Prize celebrates the best works of long-form fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English and published in the U.K. and/or Ireland between October 2025 and Sept. 2026. The winner stands to win 50,000 pounds ($67,000) and a trophy named Iris, so-called after the 1978 winner Iris Murdoch.
“Most of these books were beginning to feel like old friends after at least two readings,” said historian Mary Beard, head of the judging panel. “And it was painful to have to let some of them go, with their now bent spines and dog-eared pages, their brilliant capacity to make us think, argue and sometimes disagree.”
The list includes James’ “The Disappearers,” about a group of gay men in his native Jamaica in what was a hostile environment in the 1980s; Stuart’s “ John of John,” a story of father-son secrets on a remote Scottish island. James won the Booker in 2015 for “A Brief History of Seven Killings” and Stuart won in 2020 for “Shuggie Bain.”
If either were to win, they would be the fifth author to have been awarded the Booker Prize twice, joining J.M. Coetzee, Peter Carey, Hilary Mantel and Margaret Atwood.
Also on the shortlist is Pulitzer Prize laureate Elizabeth Strout, whose heartfelt small-town tale “The Things We Never Say” once again celebrates the lives of those in her native New England. Strout’s “Oh William!” was a finalist in 2022. She won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 2009 for “Olive Kitteridge.”
The others on the list are British authors Rebecca Perry for Medieval-to-modern tale “May We Feed the King”; 81-year-old M. John Harrison, who would become the oldest winner of the award if his postapocalyptic tale “The End of Everything” wins; and the quirky campus novel “Black Bag” from Luke Kennard.
It’s only the second time in the past decade that men have outnumbered women on the shortlist.
Beard said the judging panel, which included Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and American novelist Patricia Lockwood, concluded their deliberations “neatly propped up against one another, almost glowing.”
“These novels range from the hilarious to the discomfiting, from the frighteningly strange to the alarmingly domestic, from the powerfully shocking to the intriguingly understated,” she said.
Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize has a reputation for transforming writers’ careers and is open to novels from any country published in the U.K. and Ireland. Last year’s winner was “Flesh” by Hungarian-British writer David Szalay.
This year's winner will be announced on Monday, Nov. 9.
FILE - Douglas Stuart poses for a portrait on April 29, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Andy Kropa/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Elizabeth Strout poses with her book, 'Tell Me Everything," in London on June 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Joanna Chan, File)
FILE - Jamaican author Marlon James poses with the award after his book, "A Brief History of Seven Killings," was named as winner of the 2015 Booker Prize for Fiction in London on Oct. 13, 2015. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)
