Five days after leaving Spring Training to take care of a recurring knee injury, Philadelphia Phillies second basemen Chase Utley told reporters he believes he'll return sometime during the 2012 season, however, he doesn't know when.
"I truly believe I can get past this and contribute. But it's going to take a little time... It's not bad enough to have microfracture surgery," Utley said. "It's not bad enough to end my career. It's an issue I'm going to have to deal with."
Utley says he's already starting to feel better after meeting with a local specialist, who has treated other Philly athletes such as Donovan McNabb & Jim Thome.
"I've already seen benefits over the last four or five days from doing some new exercises," Utley said. "I'm very optimistic this is going to turn out well. But again it's going to take a little time and I have to do this right. I think it's important, not only for this year, but for the rest of my career. I'm 33 years old. I know some people think that's old, but I still feel like I have a lot of baseball left in me."
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