christian yelich injury thread

[Patrick425]

In high school, when I weighed something like 130 pounds, I had a Saturday track meet (I think my senior year? - 35+ years ago), got up from the kitchen table that morning and basically collapsed in pain from a sharp lower back pain. Missed that track meet and a few more and walked around like a crooked old man for several days. Have had on and off issues with my back ever since. Have had an MRI, X-rays, etc - nothing unusual was found. Have had periods of relatively normal feeling and other periods where it was very hard for me to walk or stand up straight. Have been to a chiropractor, had cortisone shots - none of it much help. My current doctor believes it stems from stiffness and inflexibility in my legs. I also sit at a desk every day which does not help. I still golf, but I feel the effects of it that night and the next day. I don't think I would have ever been able to play baseball every day (not now or 25 years ago) with the back issues I have had.

 

Obviously Christian Yelich is in much better shape that I have ever been in and has a lot more access to physical therapy and medical analysis. However, it seems like there is a multitude of reasons why backs can be an issue. Its not always as simple as a disk or alignment issue and it seems like its not always easy to diagnose, especially when the pictures show nothing.

[markedman5]

[Ron Robinsons Beard]

Going out on a minor league rehab assignment tomorrow, per pretty much every beat reporter. Two ABs tomorrow, then will take it day by day.

 

Very positive news! Gonna be watching those Nashville box scores like a hawk for the next few days.

[djoctagone]

christian yelich is in kansas city with the team if they decide to activate him for tonight's game.

[JohnBriggs12]

christian yelich is in kansas city with the team if they decide to activate him for tonight's game.

 

 

DH?

[homer]

For those out there thinking this back issue is nothing, I have one name for you: Tiger Woods. Woods has had 5 back surgeries. It's a bad sign when a player under 30 needs days off every other week to rest a sore back. These are highly tuned athletes. He's getting paid to perform at a high level. The mystery nature of this is problematic too.

 

This.

 

Also, back issues don't get better with age.

 

Such is the cursed organization that is the Milwaukee Brewers...

Let's make sure I'm getting this right, Tiger Woods has had 5 back surgeries and Christian Yelich has had zero surgeries and a very current MRI showing no structural damage.

 

Why are we talking about Tiger Woods again? Doesn't seem relevant.

 

And it's his first trip to the disabled list for this particular injury. Let's not jump the gun on this thing.

[adambr2]

The Yelich injury situation is just odd. He came back for one day about -- 2 weeks ago? Then basically they said he wasn't going to be able to do this and they needed to step back until they got some answers.

 

Maybe I missed it but has there been any answer? Any diagnosis, any visit with a specialist, anything? It's great that he *appears* to be close to returning but it doesn't really feel like they know any more than they knew 2 weeks ago.

[pacopete4]

Just like all situations with pro sports teams, we get told as little as needed.

[Underachiever]

christian yelich is in kansas city with the team if they decide to activate him for tonight's game.

 

 

DH?

He probably will come back as the DH to ease him in a bit. But I have said this in the past when a player had a back issue. It would seem to me that swinging a bat is way more sudden and likely to cause back discomfort than playing outfield. Other than fatigue, what is the benefit to having him DH only?

[tmwiese55]

christian yelich is in kansas city with the team if they decide to activate him for tonight's game.

 

 

DH?

He probably will come back as the DH to ease him in a bit. But I have said this in the past when a player had a back issue. It would seem to me that swinging a bat is way more sudden and likely to cause back discomfort than playing outfield. Other than fatigue, what is the benefit to having him DH only?

 

you may be right on it being worse than running in OF, etc, I don't know. However, just doing one of two rather than both is obviously less stressful than doing both right away.

[areacodes]

He probably will come back as the DH to ease him in a bit. But I have said this in the past when a player had a back issue. It would seem to me that swinging a bat is way more sudden and likely to cause back discomfort than playing outfield. Other than fatigue, what is the benefit to having him DH only?

 

you may be right on it being worse than running in OF, etc, I don't know. However, just doing one of two rather than both is obviously less stressful than doing both right away.

 

Wasn’t Yelich quoted as saying that swinging the bat didn’t bother him but the issue was the bending over and movement that way?

[OldSchoolSnapper]

It wouldn't surprise me if the bending over is the movement that hurts routinely, but even if that's the case, swinging the bat would be a great way to make things worse. It may not hurt every time, but get a bad swing just once and you could create a world of problems.

 

This team hasn't been all that inspiring, but if I said they'd be one game over at this point with Yelich essentially missing the whole season, I think most would accept that.

[SomewhereInTime]

The Yelich injury situation is just odd. He came back for one day about -- 2 weeks ago? Then basically they said he wasn't going to be able to do this and they needed to step back until they got some answers.

 

Maybe I missed it but has there been any answer? Any diagnosis, any visit with a specialist, anything? It's great that he *appears* to be close to returning but it doesn't really feel like they know any more than they knew 2 weeks ago.

 

I have two reoccurring old football injuries from college, neck strains and back strains. They get better with rest and after a few weeks I'm back to 100%. They are probably never going to 100% go away and they can be triggered in a variety of different ways. I'm guessing Yelich has roughly the same issue with his back and tried to push it a little too soon and that's why he needed another couple of weeks.

 

Now I'm sure he's met with specialists and has been given the best care possible but if they did an MRI and there is no structural damage to repair, then there's not much else that can be done.

[jonescm128]

The Yelich injury situation is just odd. He came back for one day about -- 2 weeks ago? Then basically they said he wasn't going to be able to do this and they needed to step back until they got some answers.

 

Maybe I missed it but has there been any answer? Any diagnosis, any visit with a specialist, anything? It's great that he *appears* to be close to returning but it doesn't really feel like they know any more than they knew 2 weeks ago.

 

I have two reoccurring old football injuries from college, neck strains and back strains. They get better with rest and after a few weeks I'm back to 100%. They are probably never going to 100% go away and they can be triggered in a variety of different ways. I'm guessing Yelich has roughly the same issue with his back and tried to push it a little too soon and that's why he needed another couple of weeks.

 

Now I'm sure he's met with specialists and has been given the best care possible but if they did an MRI and there is no structural damage to repair, then there's not much else that can be done.

 

Someone get the man some HGH

[brewerfan82]

The Yelich injury situation is just odd. He came back for one day about -- 2 weeks ago? Then basically they said he wasn't going to be able to do this and they needed to step back until they got some answers.

 

Maybe I missed it but has there been any answer? Any diagnosis, any visit with a specialist, anything? It's great that he *appears* to be close to returning but it doesn't really feel like they know any more than they knew 2 weeks ago.

This is the closest I found: https://www.jsonline.com/story/sports/mlb/brewers/2021/05/13/christian-yelich-heads-rehab-nashville-after-back-improves/5070979001/

 

“We switched some things just from the medical perspective that worked for Christian and clicked for him and changed how he felt,” manager Craig Counsell said. “That allowed him to increase his activity, and he’s been able to increase it without any worsening following the activity and waking up the next morning feeling good and ready to have a full day again.

 

“So, just good signs and ready to take the next step.”

 

Counsell said Yelich was able to ramp up his baseball activity in recent days without any setbacks, putting in motion the plan to go to Nashville.

 

“So, this whole week – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and today – he’s going basically full strength,” Counsell said. “Everything’s been with good intent and he’s felt really good. So, we’re going to ease him into the games there. We’re learning more about how to help him and how to make him feel better and how his back’s going to react to the different things that a game offers that’s very difficult to simulate through exercise.

 

It's vague on details on how they determined what to change about how he was treating it, but sounds like there was some sort of conscious change made that has so far had good results.

[djoctagone]

christian yelich has been activated from the injured list.

[adambr2]

Here's hoping it lasts more than 1 day this time. Welcome back, we need you sorely.

[Baldkin]

Alright. Yelich in as the Disabled Hitter tonight. Perfect.

[dlk9s]

Welcome back, we need you sorely.

 

That was the problem.

[DuWayne Steurer]

Welcome, back, we need you sorely.

 

 

Fixed.

[The stache]

The more I read about what's going on with Yelich, the more I think that the back issues as they stand in 2021 are directly connected with the knee injury he suffered. Even if the knee is now completely healed, and no longer a cause of any kind of discomfort, my gut instinct, dealing post surgically with knee issues for over 30 years, and spine issues for nearly 15, is that irreparable damage has occurred to his spine.

 

I'm a good deal older than Yelich, and I have additional medical issues beyond those that Yelich has. About three years ago, I tripped and broke the patella in my left knee. Fractured it into two pieces. It was incredibly painful, and my orthopedic specialist (the one that does my knee and leg surgeries) told me that the two pieces were still connected by one little piece of bone at the very top. His hope was that we might avoid a reconstructive procedure with rest. The thought of having my patella pieced back together with a pin wasn't very appealing, so the conservative approach that this surgeon always took with me once again seemed logical. I was put on bed rest for two months, and when I came back to get another set of x-rays, the fracture had completely healed. My surgeon was shocked it had healed as well as it had, knowing my history.

 

I'm clearly not a professional athlete like Yelich, but when I began rehabilitation for the knee, just simple weight bearing exercises caused a good deal of pain and discomfort. Assisted deep knee bends. Climbing stairs. Walking with ankle weights. About three weeks into that rehab, my sports medicine physical therapist, who began treating that leg when I shattered the femur a few years earlier, and had been treating me for 15 years, took some video of me walking on the treadmill, and had me compare it to video taken at the end of my femur rehab. My gait had noticeably changed, and my back issues, which were already a handful, saw a dramatic increase in pain level and frequency; I also had an increase in the number of severe muscle spasms, which originated at multiple points between T12 and L3-L4. Though I'd suffered no recent trauma to my back, when I visited my chiropractor, my spinal alignment was completely out of whack. Nothing says "tonight is going to suck ass" like hearing the joints in your back audibly pop with gentle manipulation. Compared to an MRI from just 12 months earlier, there was a noticeable increase to the disc degeneration and facet joint degeneration.

 

The news says that Yelich's latest MRI shows no damage. No "new" damage is how I interpret it. I don't know how HIPAA laws affect professional athletes as far as what can be reported to the public. But if Yelich's issue with his back predate this recent flair up, which seems to be the case, we might not be getting the full picture.

 

Anybody that has dealt with back pain understands how delicate a balancing act the spine is. With so many moving parts, with articulation in so many different directions, it seems highly likely to me that the knee fracture accelerated whatever degenerative issues are occurring in his back.

 

I fear this isn't a simple disc issue. If there were a protrusion, they would get him into the OR to re-seat it. If there were some annular fissure, which would be a chronic issue going forward, they would address it surgically. If the interior of the disc were torn, it would be repaired. Almost anything beyond that could be treated with a steroid injection. Any type of facet or SI joint issue, they would also try to treat first with a steroid injection. Those take a few weeks before they start working.

 

Whatever ultimately comes out, I'd bet the house that the Christian Yelich we saw in 2018 and 2019 just isn't ever coming back. I really hope I'm wrong, but all sorts of red lights are flashing here. They can't pinpoint the exact issue of his discomfort, so it seems like a much more widespread issue to me. He might be able to continue, playing out his contract, but a back injury to a hitter like Yelich is death. I always think back to Don Mattingly, and the kind of player he was before and after his back injury.

 

My heart goes out to him. There are few things worse than chronic back pain.

[sobomp3]

I mean this in the most respectful way, but, those are a lot of words trying to associate some sort of anecdotal story of yours to his current back issues. He's had back issues in the past; not to mention no injury issues last year immediately following the patella injury. Lets not make this a bigger deal than it needs to be.

[SeaBass]

I mean this in the most respectful way, but, those are a lot of words trying to associate some sort of anecdotal story of yours to his current issues. He's had back issues in the past. Lets not make this a bigger deal than it needs to be.

Yep. I also have back troubles and I've been very hesitant to compare Yelich's situation to mine. Everybody is different and the spine has so many nerves and muscles attached to it two people could feel back pain in exactly the same place and still have completely different sources and reasons for that pain.

 

The only comparison I've attempted to speculate on is that when my back flares up I generally am not useful in social situations until it calms back down again. Going on that basis and the report that his MRI showed no structural damage, when I saw him in the dugout during games while he was on the IL and watched his posture and movement while he interacted with his teammates it led me to feel that his back pain wasn't so serious that it prevented him from being there and didn't prevent him from moving around. It also didn't look like he was concerned about his posture, that it wasn't restricting him. I specifically recall him leaning on the rail at the top of the dugout in a position that I thought wouldn't be comfortable for someone experiencing back pain. I took that as a very hopeful sign that his issue, while lingering longer than it had for him in the past, wasn't ultimately anything to get worked up about as far as long term ramifications. Again though, I could be completely wrong about it because I really have no clue what his actual situation is.