Staff Blog
Crises All Around: Utley to miss 4 to 6 months
News is just breaking that Chase Utley is having hip surgery and is expected to be out for between four to six months.
Utley consistently downplayed speculation about his bad hip during the
second half of the postseason. But the Phillies revealed Thursday that
since the World Series, he has had the hip evaluated by Phillies team
physician Michael Ciccotti, of Thomas Jefferson University Hospital’s
Rothman Institute, and by Dr. Bryan Kelly, of the Hospital for Special
Surgery in New York.Both doctors recommended that Utley undergo surgery on his
right hip. That procedure, described by the club as an “arthroscopic
evaluation with treatment of any labral or bony injury,” will take
place next week.
Utley, according to the team, should be able to resume “baseball activities” in three to four months, but is not expected to recover fully for between four to six. Which means the Phils could start their first title defense season since 1981 without their best player, aka, the guy who carried them through the entire first half of 2008.
Here’s hoping this gets Chase right.
