Howard sidelined indefinitely
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Howard sidelined indefinitely
Matt Gelb
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Ryan Howard has indeed suffered a setback in his recovery from Achilles surgery and will be sidelined indefinitely following a procedure to clean an infection from his original wound.
Foot specialist Mark Myerson performed a "small procedure" Monday to remove the stitches from Howard's wound, Phillies head athletic trainer Scott Sheridan said. Howard is on antibiotics and should return to camp sometime Wednesday. Myerson is the surgeon who originally operated on Howard's ruptured left Achilles last October.
Sheridan is unaware of when Howard will return to his rehab program. When asked if the delay would be days or weeks, Sheridan said, "I truly don't know that answer."
While Myerson was forced to reopen Howard's wound, he did find the structure of the rebuilt Achilles tendon remained intact.
"That was our biggest concern going into this," Sheridan said. "That was one of the things during the procedure he confirmed; the Achilles tendon is intact and not compromised. That's great news."
But now, Howard must heal this new wound. Sheridan said the team will be cautious this time to avoid any further problems later.
And the area where the procedure was done is notoriously a difficult place for a wound to heal.
"It's common for the skin behind the Achilles to have trouble healing," Sheridan said. "I wouldn't say it's common for the infection to occur. I do know it's a tough area to heal. It doesn't have a very good blood supply."
Sheridan once again refuted the idea this was a setback to Howard's recovery, despite him being inactive since Saturday.
The Phillies had publicly target a return for their first baseman sometime in May. Sheridan said he never had a timetable.
"I don't prefer to use that word," Sheridan said. "I know that's the word everyone wants to use. We never established a particular timetable for him. Right now, it's one of those things that happens in the rehab process. We just have to move forward from it."
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
- Wrong question. What are we going to do about his 35 hr'S, 120 rbi'S and .930 ops?
— UncleStosh - It's pretty hard to call Howard a .930 OPS guy the last 4 years. The Howard in his mid-twenties is never coming back. So far this is the one the other people in baseball thought wouldn't be able to stay on the field or stay productive in his mid-30s. Out of the three guys his career is closest to at this point: Sexson, McGwire, and Vaughn (in that order according to Baseball-reference), Sexson's last full, productive season was age 31, McGwire's was a steroid induced 35, and Vaughn's was 32. None of those guys tore their achilles, but Vaughn tore a tendon in his left arm. — jtj06
- this is bad news for howard his career could be in jeopardy,the american league as a DH may his only option in the future,the phillies have to look for a longterm 1B,or move chase utley to first...wolf.— wolf 4
- Dogbisquit, not so fast! Don't they always lose series to the Cubs, Pirates and Astros?— Mark1npt
- I hope that doesn't mean another week or so of watching TV and eating. It's tough enough for a big guy to come back from this type of injury at his age- I don't think he will play another full season as a regular- but extra pounds will just make it tougher.— jtj06
- Well, Phils, did Howard have a setback or not? Whose feelings(or ego)are being hurt? Why deny, through beat writers, that Howard had a setback when details appear to indicate otherwise? One of Howard's teammates this year, Kevin Frandsen, who had the procedure said "I don't think you're 100 percent for at least a year or year and a half, where you feel like you're doing everything you've done in the past. It took quite a long time. And I was early on every thing; ahead of schedule with no setbacks" Even if Frandsen is a so-so athlete, he was a smaller man, there wasn't as much weight to put on his Achilles. Stop giving Howard(and the fans)false hope, like the Flyers(in the past)and the Eagles do. Howard is hurt, he's in a recovery period, and if he does it right, it is going to take a while. Why the rush? You're not exactly showing confidence in the Wigginton and Nix acquisitions if Howard is being pushed.
— 76erfn - Warbiscuit - besides getting a dictionary for Christmas, why didn't Mummy and Daddy get their little boy a clue?— dwp66
- Considering he won't be back for 2 months, I wouldn't call this a setback. The infection will heal long before the Achilles.— AvoidSundanceVacations
- He Sucks when it counts!
— chilenos - Howard should trying cleaning that wound now and again. And no spitting on it every 3 seconds like you do during each at bat doesn't help. The only positive in this whole thing is if Mayberry or somebody steps up before HOward returns the country boob may actually hit Howard 5th in the lineup vs lefties upon return— JuanSamuel4prez
- Howard still can't hit an outside breaking pitch.
...and he thinks he hits .300....
Ultimately, that's a much bigger problem than an infected wound.— fmMD 
Comment removed.- Let's hope we can get an early 75 ab's out of thome. The rest of this crew is gonna have to pull together; lotta platooning ! Anybody heard about Brown? It'd be nice to see him surprize.Figure him in left with Mayberry at first. Wigginton will see 50 games at third easy. Everybody else STAY Heathy and they should be good, get the big piece back near the end (when he's icthing to swing) and we're looking good.
