Derek Jeter knew something was wrong with his left ankle, but the revelation that there was a new fracture there was little relief. Instead, it only heaped more time and more frustration on his recovery, which had already dragged beyond his target return of opening day.
At least Jeter has this to cling to, though: He vowed Thursday that he’ll be back this season, back at shortstop, like always, and back to being the player that built his glittering baseball resume.
“To the fans, I’ll be back soon,” Jeter said during a packed press conference at Yankee Stadium before the Yanks played the Blue Jays. It’s the first time he’s spoken publicly since the presence of a new fracture was announced April 18.
Jeter said he has “no doubt” he’ll play this season and admitted he has a date in mind, though he refused to reveal it. How’d his last target date go? The Yankees have said they’re hoping he’s fit to play sometime after the All-Star break.
“I’ve been told this bone will heal and when it heals I’ll be ready to go,” the 38-year-old Jeter said. “It’s frustrating that I can’t magically make it heal sooner than it’s taking, but I have no doubt I’ll be back.”
Jeter has mostly been rehabbing at the Yankees’ complex in Tampa, so he has not been around the team. He said it felt good to be with his teammates Thursday and planned to stick around for the homestand, though he would not travel with the team.
During the press conference, Jeter, who loathes talking about injuries nearly as much as he hates being injured, was at times playful, teasing reporters and smiling. At one point, he joked, “I think I’ll be very well rested when I come back.”
But he also admitted that it’s been very difficult process and that there were dark days when he first found out he had suffered another fracture.
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“What do you think?” he said, dourly. “I’ve been stuck in the training room. It’s not good news. I thought I would go up there (to see his surgeon in Charlotte) and when I went to go see the doc they would say it was something different; ‘Tape it up and let’s go.’ That wasn’t the case, so it didn’t feel too good for quite some time. I’m laughing and smiling and happy I’m here, but I’m still upset that I can’t play.”
Jeter said he was unsure when he suffered the new fracture, which is in the same bone he broke during last season’s playoffs, but in a different spot, he said. He is currently wearing a protective boot, though he did not have it on at the press conference.
“When we took the (two) CT-scans before spring training started, the bone had healed,” Jeter said. “I’m not one to complain about something being sore, so you just go out there and play, which I did. It just never went away. I wasn’t able to run. I wasn’t able to do things that I wanted to do. I had it checked out again and that’s when they found out that it was fractured again. I would assume it has probably been like that for quite some time, but that’s just an assumption. There’s no way to tell.”
When someone suggested it had already happened by the time he was scratched from a March 19 spring game in Clearwater, he said, “I don’t know. Maybe, yeah. But I’d just be guessing.”
Jeter said he did not regret pushing to be ready for opening day, noting that he felt “like I didn’t do my job,” since he wasn’t ready for the first game of the season.
But he did stop short of saying he didn’t overextend himself in an effort to return. “I don’t think I pushed it too hard,” he said at first, but then added, “Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t, but I don’t know.”
Still, Jeter said he won’t be more cautious in handling any future injuries.
As for this current one, he’s eager to get past it. “As soon as I can physically play, I’ll play,” Jeter said.
'No doubt,' Jeter will be back
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