Howard Heading To Clearwater
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Howard Heading To Clearwater
Marc Narducci
Ryan Howard had said on Friday night that he hoped to leave Sunday to resume baseball related activity in Clearwater.
General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. confirmed before tonight’s game with the Chicago Cubs at Citizens Bank Park that Howard will indeed head out Sunday for that exact purpose.
Howard has been limited since Feb. 27, when he required a procedure to clean an infection from his original Achilles tendon surgery wound.
“I don’t think it (the wound) is completely healed but I think it’s healed enough so that at this stage they don’t’ feel it will be compromised,” Amaro said.
Amaro said that on Monday Howard would begin taking part in baseball activities, but he won’t hit right away.
“It will be ground balls and some other things,” Amaro said. “He probably won’t start hitting for at least a few days because he wants to get his legs under him and doesn’t want to get in any bad habits.”
Neither Amaro on Saturday or Howard on Friday would even venture a guess as to when he could return to the Phillies, but they see this as a positive step.
Comment removed.
Talk about the missing piece.— adipaolo- Oh geez! I can't wait for people to jump all over this quote: "He probably won't start hitting for at least a few days because he...doesn't want to get in any bad habits."— Penfold18
- He doesn't want to get into any bad habits? He already has a bad habit of trying to pull everything. Personalyy, I think this is the cause of the Achilles injury in the first place. The Big Piece has tremendous (and natural) power to left and left-center. In his year that he hit 58 dingers, virtually half of his taters went to the left side of the field, but over the last few years, he's gotten pull-happy, and his HR production has dropped every year since 2006. He needs to just take the outside pitches the other way, over the short dimensions over the flowerbeds.— southpaw57
- The surgery was performed over 7 months ago? What is the deal with this wound not healing?— argonne
- canr wait for the re-injury or the infection to return....or maybe even a new injury...plus some bad habits. funny, i thought he already had a few bad habits— psualum
If the wound hasn't healed, then he shouldn't be doing baseball activities on it. Standard recovery time is 12 months when there no infection is present. He had an infection, which sets this timetable back even further. Shut him down for this season and hope for the best next year when he's fully recovered. Playing around like this with a wound that hasn't healed may jeopardize his return NEXT year.— Sam Crow- Argonne has a good point. It would be nice if we could get an explanation as to why the wound didn't heal sooner in the first place.
— PittsburghPete - Right Sam, I'm sure you know better than the medical professionals treating him. Thanks for the tip. Maybe next you should fill people in on the cure for cancer.— lazyboy
- @PP - The explanation of why the wound didn't heal in the first place is because he was jogging and exercising on it before he should have. You won't get an official to admit it, though, because the Phillies could be held liable for mishandling his recovery. There's your answer.— Sam Crow
- @lazy - I know because I suffered the exact same injury and understand it's complication first hand. And before you tell me I'm not a professional athlete and it's different with Howard, let me tell you the achilles is located in a spot on the body that is not easy to heal regardless of your body type, which, I might add, is rather sizable in Howard's case. You're welcome.— Sam Crow
- Oh Swack !! Sam Crow lowering the boom! Get em , Sam.
— zubzub - Happy news.— Grazman
- Just remember---to quote RAJ "we don't consider this a setback"— John Harvey
- Sam I hate to point out the obvious, but almost all Doctors indicate 6 months is the outside time for a recovery from a ruptured achilles with surgery. Factors that weigh in on whether the person will recovery successfully are the skill of the surgeon, dedication to PT, and health of the individual involved. I'm guessing Howard got the best of the first two, and while he's not in the best shape he is a professional athlete. Sure he had an infection to complicate things, but it wasn't like the infection was in the tendon. So thanks for your 2 cents, but your opinion flys in the face of all the medical evidence.— lazyboy
