Red Sox's Ortiz Has Foot Problems, Again

David Ortiz (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When we said last week that we were hoping Carlos Beltran's bone bruise on his foot wasn't an inauspicious beginning to the baseball season, we were being serious.
Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz's foot problems are becoming a tale as old as time. Ortiz is likely to begin the season on the disabled list after being diagnosed with inflammation in his heels. He has not played in a week, and said he wasn't surprised to about the inflammation because of how his feet have felt recently, especially his left foot.
"I knew there was something that was not normal. I was getting pain four or five hours after I was finished with my workout. I knew something wasn't right," Ortiz said.
Ortiz spoke with the medical staff and an MRI was taken on Saturday. He was relieved the diagnosis wasn't worse.
"It's not anything crazy, thank God," Ortiz said. "But it's going to take a couple weeks to get fixed."
The Red Sox slugger has started a course of anti-inflammatory medication and is receiving daily treatment. "We started doing a whole bunch of different things. I'm not just going to be doing baseball activities I guess for about a week. It's not a good feeling. I've been working really hard this offseason just to make sure, you know, I'm good to go for the season... The one thing that we really are working on is when I'm back, I'm back. It's not just coming back for a couple of weeks and go back to the same thing."
Ortiz's foot troubles go back to last July when he sustained a small tear in his Achilles tendon. He's not surprised he's still having troubles eight months later.
"We're humans. We're humans. Nobody wants to be injured. Me, I was going 120% this offseason working with this injury. The good news is that it had nothing that had to do with my Achilles, like it used to be. That made me happy, at least, knowing my Achilles is doing fine.
"It's a process that when you are going at it, you pretty much use everything. It's not like you can get picky with the things you want to do. Not being formally doing things for like six months, it's like starting all over. It happens."
With everyone's favorite DH and first baseman on the DL for the foreseeable future, who will replace him?
"It's safe to say we don't have another David Ortiz to occupy that slot. Where the best matchups are and how do we balance Mike Napoli playing everyday. Everything projects where he would be fine but we all have to consider that," said manager John Farrell.
Ortiz says his newest injury is related to his Achilles tendon and all the time he had off. "Yeah, I was compensating. I was compensating, that's one thing. The other thing is the time without running and doing all that activity. But I was compensating for the Achilles. That's why I was getting a little bit of inflammation on the other side."
Ortiz doesn't expect to miss much time, but he believes the Red Sox can be great without him. "We have a good team now. We have. We have good players. I've been talking to a lot of them and the one thing that I keep telling them is just try to do what you do at your best. Don't try to do more than that. You're going to bump into some tough times, just learn how to deal with it and everything's going to be taken care of."
Reference: Boston Globe.
If you are a baseball player and have a foot problem, call our Newington, Kensington, or Middletown office to make an appointment.

Craig M. Kaufman, DPM
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