Ike Davis and his doctors are giving the Mets first baseman’s left ankle three more weeks. Then the most likely option is season-ending surgery.
Davis visited a specialist in North Carolina yesterday and received a cortisone shot in his left ankle joint for the bone bruise he sustained in a May collision with David Wright.
At the time, Davis thought he rolled his ankle and would miss a few days. If it turned out to be a sprain, maybe two weeks.
“The cortisone shot is a last-ditch effort to see if I can push forward without having to have surgery,” said Davis, who had a real up-and-down week as he ran initially with great results, then experienced sharp pain before the situation settled in again, leading to the injection.
“Better,” was Davis’ initial response to the age-old “How ya feeling?”question.
“I started jogging and stuff,” he said. “Some days it feels really good. Some days it doesn’t. I had a cortisone shot so basically we’re going to give it three more weeks … and if it’s not pretty much gone by then, then we’ll think about surgery.
“But three more weeks, hopefully this cortisone shot kind of knocks all the inflammation out and I’m good to go after that.”
Davis said he has no regrets about not having surgery done sooner. “Surgery is not fun,” he said, receiving absolutely no argument. But with nine weeks behind him, the time to take the next step, an operation, is bearing down.
“In 12 weeks if I’m not taking steps to play — in three [more] weeks — there’s something structurally wrong,” said Davis, who started his running regimen eight days ago.
“Being a young healthy guy, it should heal. It sometimes takes 12 weeks to heal. We’ll see where I am. It’s not, ‘A little discomfort, OK, surgery.’ If I get the sharp pain, then I’ll have the surgery.”