Anthony Rizzo recovering for Yankees' pennant chase | The Injury Report

this is the injury report presented by NYU langone Health Yankee fans were glad to get one of their key pieces back as Anthony Rizzo came off the injured list earlier this week but how will Rizzo Fair now that he's back in the lineup let's talk about it on the latest edition of the injury report with Dr Lauren barowski of NYU langone Sports Medicine Center Doctor how are you doing I'm doing well thank you so much for having me glad to have you here so let's talk about it with Anthony Rizzo because in a game against the Red Sox back in mid June Rizzo suffered a fracture to the radial neck of his right arm what's the typical timeline for someone to return after that injury so usually it's about six to eight weeks so he's really on track for Recovery in our kind of expected timeline so that's that's it that this a short six to eight weeks he can get back he's on track as as long as you know all other you know health conditions and metabolic conditions are are set and good for him he should be you know good to go with six to8 weeks sometimes it can take longer you know we do quote sometimes more like 12 weeks but 6 to8 is a very typical timeline gotcha with that there so he didn't have to have surgery what does that tell you about his injury and is there any instance in which a fractured forearm would require surgery there's a couple things we take into consideration when thinking about surgical versus nonsurgical treatment most likely what he had was something called a nondisplaced fracture meaning that the ends of the fracture pieces were pretty close to each other or minimally displaced and if they are further apart you know more displaced or they are angulated in to a certain degree or if the other bone in the forearm is is also affected if the Ola is also fractured those are some considerations for why for when we would go to surgery rather than a non-operative treatment but the fact that they were able to treat it nonoperatively usually means that it was non-displaced or minimally displaced gotcha and that is good news for Yankee fans so Rizzo now is back on the recovery process in terms of the lineup he's playing in minor leagues but he spent about two months recovering he just started a rehab assignment so what factors are team doctors considering when it comes to deciding when he's ready to actually return to the lineup with the big league club one of the things that we look at when we're returning anyone with a fracture back to more higher impact play or higher intensity play is whether or not there's been a big that there's been a bony callus that is formed around the fracture edges so when we fracture our bone the body lays down more bone around that fracture site and then it remodels it over time to make it look like it had previously so we want to look for that bony callous so that we know that that fracture is nice and connected again uh we see that on x-ray so that's why we continuously take serial x-rays every couple of weeks to see whether or not that bony callus has formed and then we start to add in a little bit more uh intensity to the workouts that he's doing can he tolerate more weight bearing without significant pain and then we start the rehab process like he's starting to now we want to make sure that we're gradually adding back in intensity and weight training and high impact like he would experience when he's hitting a baseball off of a bat and that's the process of where he is right now and so we saw him advance to playing first base a bit earlier than expected he played first base on Tuesday night when he was initially was expected to potentially mix in action this weekend so he's a bit ahead of schedule does that seem like a sign that his return to the big league lineup could be even closer I think it's a really good sign I think he's got a really great team behind him medically and I don't think they would Advance him faster than what he he should be so I think it's a good sign that hopefully he's his return is in the very near future all right that's what Yankee fans definitely want to hear that he can return to the big league club pretty soon but then here's the other question doctor will he have any limitations once he does return because as you said always monitoring always want to be cautious so will Rizzo have any limitations once he does get back to the big Club probably not so the the I don't say the nice thing about a fracture but when you have a radial neck fracture it doesn't usually involve The Joint itself so we worry about fractures that get into the joint because it can increase your risk of things like early arthritis into that joint or pain because of the joint movement and so when it's outside of the fracture outside of the joint it tends to have less joint issues going forward so once that bone is healed hopefully he should be just fine all right sounds like good news for the Yankee fans who should be excited that Anthony Rizzo is back in the lineup in the minor leagues for now hopefully can get to the big Club pretty soon that is Dr Lauren barowski of NYU langol Sports Medicine Center Dr pleasure to talk to you on this edition of the injury report we'll catch up soon thank you so much for having me