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Published November 20, 2014
Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, who is recovering from Achilles surgery, had a procedure done on Monday to clean out an infection.
An infection recently formed in Howard's wound from surgery this past October, prompting a trip to Baltimore to see Dr. Mark Myerson.
Phillies athletic trainer Scott Sheridan made the following statement on Wednesday, revealed through MLB.com:
"Ryan Howard saw Dr. Myerson on Monday. As you know Dr. Myerson did his surgery in October. When (Howard) was up there, Dr. Myerson did a small procedure to basically clean out his sutures and clean out this wound that he has. Dr. Myerson has consulted with infectious disease doctors. Ryan is going to be placed on antibiotic medication. We'll be consulting with Dr. Myerson later today and in the next couple days about how this is going to affect the rehab program. The biggest thing right now is we have to protect the wound and make sure that the healing occurs, then begin to move forward from there."
The good news is that Howard's repaired Achilles tendon is intact.
"I don't think anytime you have an infection that's good news, but I think from the standpoint from the things that could happen and didn't happen, whatever, we're pleased that the biggest thing is the Achilles is intact. There was no compromise of that," Sheridan added.
Sheridan disputed that this was a setback in Howard's recovery.
"I don't prefer to use that word. I know that's what everybody wants to use," he said. "We had never established a particular time frame for him, and right now it's one of those things that happens in the rehab process. We just have to move forward from it."
Howard was injured during the final at-bat of Philadelphia's Game 5 loss in the NLDS to the St. Louis Cardinals. He appeared to tweak something leaving the batter's box on a ground ball.
He made it only halfway up the line, crumbling to the ground unable to put weight on his affected leg as he was easily thrown out at first base.
Coming off a regular season that saw the 31-year-old hit .253 with 33 home runs and 116 RBI, Howard had a sub-par postseason with two hits in 19 at- bats. While he drove in six runs, he didn't have an RBI or hit in the final three games.
https://www.foxnews.com/sports/phillies-1b-howard-has-infection-cleaned-out