Derek Jeter shouldn’t have trouble getting back on a field next season, but at least one doctor is curious whether the 38-year-old shortstop might be a little bit slower after suffering a fractured left ankle in Saturday’s loss to the Tigers in Game 1 of the ALCS.
“He plays a position where you have to be mobile, so you wonder what impact this will have,” said Dr. Steven Weinfeld of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine. “He’ll be able to play, but will he lose a step?”
The typical recovery period from the injury is about three months, a timetable that shouldn’t be altered if Jeter needs surgery — something that will not be known until later in the week after he visits Dr. Robert Anderson, a foot and ankle specialist, in Charlotte, N.C.
Though Joe Girardi indicated Jeter’s previous ankle issues may have contributed to the fracture that will sideline him for the rest of the postseason, doctors were skeptical.
“They’re probably not related,” said Dr. David Geier, director of sports medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina. “They could be, but this was a traumatic event. When you land awkwardly or in an unusual fashion, it can happen.”
Weinfeld gave Girardi’s theory some credence, though.
“It doesn’t weaken the ankle, but if it was sore, he might have landed differently than he normally does,” Weinfeld said. “Sometimes, that’s all it takes.”
Both doctors were watching the game when Jeter crumpled to the ground in agony and believed the prognosis could have been worse.
“It looked like it might have been his Achilles [tendon] or his ACL [knee],” Geier said. “Not to minimize a fractured ankle, but either one of those would have been harder for him to come back from than this.”