Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard underwent a procedure on Monday after his surgically repaired Achilles tendon became infected, team trainer Scott Sheridan told ESPN, and the team is unsure when the slugger will be able to return to the field.
Sheridan was hesitant to call Howard's latest injury development a setback, but it's likely that the procedure to remove the infection will keep Howard out of the team's lineup longer than he otherwise would have been.
The silver lining for Phillies fans is that the Achilles was inspected during the procedure and remains "intact and not compromised."
But there is still no timetable for Howard's return.
"I have no idea on that," Sheridan said. "We'll talk to Dr. Myerson in the next couple of days, see how he responds to the antibiotics, and we'll go from there. ...
"The things that Ryan had been doing (until this) were very good," Sheridan said. "We had been doing some basic cutting with him. We're hoping we can just kind of move forward from here and that this won't push it back too much."
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