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Nationals spring training report Date published: 2/17/2007
BY TODD JACOBSON VIERA, Fla.--Nick Johnson limped slightly as he walked out of the shadows and into the dugout at Space Coast Stadium and carefully navigated a small set of stairs leading to the field. Still recovering from a gruesome broken right femur suffered last September, Johnson arrived two days before position players must report to Nationals spring training with some bad news: He probably won't return to the field until June at the earliest. "I can't even jog right now," Johnson said yesterday. "Everything is so weak in my right leg. My hip, my quad, everything." The Nationals have not set a timetable for Johnson's return. And although Johnson threw out "June" with little input from medical specialists, team officials were careful not to make any predictions yesterday. The team plans to move cautiously with its cleanup hitter and first baseman. Dr. Ben Shaffer, the Nationals' team orthopedist, will view Johnson's x-rays Monday. Only then might the team have a more clear idea when Johnson might be able to return. How Johnson progresses during the next few weeks and months of rehabilitation probably will be the best indicator. "We are not going to jeopardize 2008 and years beyond 2008 just to get Nick Johnson over here two, three weeks earlier," manager Manny Acta said. "No, not at all. Nick is not going to be on the field until he's 100 percent ready to go, free of any type of risk of injuring himself out there." As Johnson stood outside the Nationals' dugout yesterday, just a few yards off the first-base line, a return to the field seemed a long ways away. After he collided with right fielder Austin Kearns chasing a pop-up Sept. 23 against the New York Mets, he needed two hours of surgery and a titanium rod to repair the severe break. Initially, Shaffer said Johnson might be healthy enough to be ready for opening day. But Johnson's recovery did not go smoothly. He had two more surgeries--one to remove scar tissue in his leg and another to remove screws inserted in the bone to help it heal--and wasn't able to walk comfortably until mid-December.
Date published: 2/17/2007
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