TAMPA — Before exiting a press conference with a noticeable limp, Derek Jeter admitted he had lot of work to do in order to be in the Opening Day lineup against the Red Sox on April 1.
However, the Yankees’ captain believes there is no reason to think he won’t make it back at the start of the season after breaking the left ankle in Game 1 of the ALCS against the Tigers last October.
“Why wouldn’t it be realistic? I broke my ankle in October. It has been quite some time,” Jeter said about making it back for the first game of the season. “I’m right where I’m supposed to be up until this point, the ankle has healed perfectly. Now, it is just a matter of getting everything else in shape. You have to wait for the bone to heal before you can do other activity before baseball activities. I will have to push myself but Opening Day is the goal.”
Jeter, who hasn’t tested the ankle running other than on a treadmill, is looking forward to getting outside to run and assumed he could begin running today. However, that was without speaking to the medical staff.
“If not (today), the next couple of days,” said Jeter who started fielding ground balls last week at the Yankees’ minor league complex.
Jeter and the Yankees aren’t putting a timetable together as for when Jeter would begin playing in exhibition games.
“I would assume in a few weeks but don’t hold me to it,” Jeter said. “I know I won’t be playing when they start games next week (Saturday). I don’t think you need all of spring training to get ready. I don’t know exactly the date I am going to play but it will probably be somewhere after a couple of weeks.”
Jeter said he was told a bone bruise turned into a stress fracture before the ankle broke. However, that was news to Joe Girardi.
“I was not aware of it,” Girardi said of Jeter using the term stress fracture. “I am not aware of what he is talking about. I knew he had the bone bruise.”
Girardi said if he knew the bone bruise could have led to a broken ankle: “We wouldn’t have been playing him if that was the case.”