FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Saquon Barkley was not on the field Wednesday when the Giants started two days of joint practices with the Patriots. Barkley was excused to attend to a personal matter and is expected back for Thursday morning’s practice.

Barkley did not travel with the team when it departed on Tuesday.

“This is something personal,’’ head coach Joe Judge said. “It has nothing to do with football. It was something he communicated with me last week. There’s certain instances that I’ll always work with a player on.’’

Still limited while he continues to ramp up his football activities coming off surgery to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament, Barkley has thus far been held out of all 11-on-11 drills. He did not participate in any live drills last week, when the Giants practiced for two days with the Browns in Berea, Ohio.

He was going to see more action on this trip, working in individual drills and possibly some 7-on-7 drills with the Patriots’ defense on the field. That had to wait a day.

Barkley will have to make the trip on his own to join his teammates. This absence is not expected to set Barkley back, and he still has a chance to be ready to play in the Sept. 12 season opener against the Broncos at MetLife Stadium.

Judge made it clear that before Barkley will play in a game, he will first have to show he can withstand some physical contact. Preferably, this comes in a preseason game, but Barkley is not ready to play Sunday in the preseason finale. So, the Giants will have to rough up Barkley in practice.

“I think every player has to have physical contact and experience the hits they’re going to take in a game before it becomes live, full speed in the regular season,’’ Judge said. “For us to put a player on the field without preparing him either through practice or preseason games without contact, we’re putting that player in danger and at a disservice.

“I know a lot of people want to put their head in a box and pretend it doesn’t exist, doesn’t happen. The reality is when you go out there [against] Denver, Washington, Atlanta, that’s live bullets now. They’re flying around. They’re trying to hit our players as hard as they can, as we are to them.’’

When Barkley finally gets into full team drills, he will at first have on a red “non-contact’’ jersey. Ultimately, though, he will have to trade that jersey for his usual No. 26 and get hit with some friendly fire before he is turned loose in a real game.

“Before we put him out there in live contact and just say, ‘Godspeed,’ we’re going to make sure this guy’s prepared, because my number one priority is his health,’’ Judge said. “Before anything else, it’s the health of the player before we get on to anything else.’’