Dr. Schulz explains what bone bruise has forced Astros star outfielder to remain on the DL.
Link to Article: Astros’ Kyle Tucker has missed 65 days with a bone bruise. Physicians explain why – The Athletic (nytimes.com)
On June 3, Tucker fouled a sinker off his right shin and crumpled to the dirt in discomfort. An on-field microphone picked up a pained profanity upon impact, but Tucker still attempted to finish his plate appearance.
A few short steps told Tucker that was impossible. He exited the batter’s box and began an absence that has now spanned 53 games and 65 days. Houston is 32-21 without Tucker, but the lineup’s limitations without him have become glaring during this grueling stretch of its schedule.
“Sometimes it can take two to three months,” said Brian Schulz, an orthopedic surgeon at Cedars Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute. “Everybody is different. There’s players that will get hit and have bone bruises and they feel fine and play the next day.”
Said Lomas: “You really have to communicate transparently with the player and move them along as tolerated to speed up the recovery. But it is absolutely possible — and it happens — for these injuries to sometimes take months to fully resolve.”
In his last extensive comments on July 13, Tucker acknowledged he still could not “do everything normally right now.” Tucker did not accompany the club during the first leg of its current nine-game road trip, but still appeared to have a slight limp while doing light, on-field activities during Houston’s last homestand.
“The hard part is the body has to heal it enough to where the player isn’t experiencing pain before you can push it,” Schulz said. “You have a little bit of jeopardy of the strength of the bone if you were going to try to push through it. You could risk creating a full-blown tibia fracture. There’s not a lot of stuff you can do to speed it up.”
During an interview on the team’s flagship radio station Wednesday morning, Brown said Tucker is “pretty much pain-free.” A day earlier, Brown told a group of reporters in Arlington that Tucker is still restricted to “limited baseball activity.”
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