Xavier McKinney wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Cast by head coach Brian Daboll as unlikely to play before the final practice of the week, McKinney returned to the Giants’ starting lineup from a seven-game absence with a broken hand Sunday just in time to be part of clinching a playoff spot with a 38-10 romp of the Colts at MetLife Stadium.

“There was no way I was going to miss this game,” McKinney said. “I think the staff knew that. The trainers and docs knew that. Every day I was asking, ‘What’s the plan here? What can I do to be able to play?’ ”

Once he gained medical clearance from Dr. Robert Hotchkiss at the Hospital for Special Surgery after Friday’s practice, McKinney didn’t stop pushing for more.

“I told them I don’t want a snap count. If I’m going to play, I’m going to play,” McKinney said. “They trusted me and handed me the keys on that, and I was just being transparent with them about how I felt out there — and I felt good.”

McKinney went for a postgame X-ray that he said “was a checkup we already scheduled” and “everything is good.”

The third-year safety and defensive co-captain had been sidelined since early November, when the ATV he was riding on a sightseeing tour in Mexico crashed and caused him to break his hand above the middle three fingers. It led to “a period where it was really hard” to not be part of the Giants’ turnaround season, but he fought through to see the bigger picture and “moments like this,” McKinney said amid a raucous locker room.

“I was never mad at myself,” McKinney said. “It was almost a question of, ‘Why? Why did this have to happen right now?’ It was one of those freak things that could’ve happened to anybody, or while I was driving a car.”

McKinney finished second on the team Sunday with seven tackles. Wearing a wrapped splint, he allowed a 49-yard completion early in the first half when he didn’t use his hand to go over the top on a jump ball, but he broke up a pass at the goal line later in the game. It was hard not to wonder if the second would’ve been an interception without the splint.

“It was an adjustment having to get back used to the speed,” McKinney said. “I only had one practice with the starting defense, and even that we were going against the scout team. I was just knocking off that rust. It will come, though.”

McKinney also resumed his regular role breaking down the huddle after pregame warm-ups. Daboll could tell McKinney looked “ready to go” and was comfortable scrapping the snap limit and leaving it to McKinney and defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson.

“He just brings a lot of energy,” defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence said. “You like to hear what he has to say because it means something, it touches you. There was one play he made, I had to dap him up and say, ‘That’s a good a– tackle.’ Good having him back.”