The New York Yankees found out on Thursday that they will be without team captain and veteran shortstop Derek Jeter until the MLB’s All-Star break from July 12-16 or shortly after it.Jeter has a small fracture in the same ankle that he broke in last year’s playoffs. He underwent a CT scan and it revealed the injury. However, Jeter won’t have to undergo surgery to repair the injury to his left ankle.
Jeter said he had been feeling some discomfort recently and made a trip to Charlotte, N.C., where he visited Dr. Robert Anderson to have the ankle looked at. Anderson is the doctor who performed the surgery on Jeter’s leg when he injured it for the first time against the Detroit Tigers during last season’s AL Championship series.
Brian Cashman, the general manager of the Yankees, said the CT scan showed the previous injury has a small crack in it and it will now take time for it to heal properly. He added that it’s certainly going to hurt the team, but he’s glad Jeter doesn’t need another operation on the ankle. Jeter had screws and metal plates inserted into the ankle during surgery last October. Cashman also said Dr. Anderson felt the player would make a complete recovery.
The 38-year-old Jeter last played for the Yankees during spring training on March 23, but has been working out in Tampa, Florida at the club’s minor league facility. He had been feeling pain in the ankle earlier in the season and received a shot of cortisone to help control it. Cashman said he’s amazed at how tough Jeter is and if he can’t play then you can bet there’s a good reason for it.
Joe Girardi, the Yankees’ field manager, said he’s obviously set back by the news of Jeter’s latest injury and he’s also disappointed for the player. He claimed the team will have to fight through until Jeter can return to the lineup and some players will really have to elevate their game. Jeter was practicing up until a day before visiting the doctor and it was the third scan on his ankle. However, the previous two didn’t show any fracture.
Cashman said the first two scans led doctors, the medical staff and Jeter himself to believe that his ankle was healing properly. He added that Jeter wouldn’t have been playing this season if the doctors felt he wasn’t at 100-percent. Cashman said if there is any good news at all about the latest injury, it’s the fact that the fracture is just a small one. He said Jeter is in good spirits and hopes to be able to rejoin his teammates about five weeks time.
While Jeter is sidelined, Cashman said he plans on continuing to use Jayson Nix and Eduardo Nunez to fill in for him at shortstop. He added that he’s happy with the play of both of them and not to disrespect the pair, but he’d rather have Jeter manning the position.
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