Oakland slugger Josh Willingham is out indefinitely after experiencing a rehab setback. Willingham has been out since June 17th after straining his Achilles’ tendon.
Earlier in the week the A’s were expecting to have Willingham back today when they finish up their series against the Diamondbacks. However, the 32 year old has experienced significant discomfort each day after going through baseball related activities.
Apparently the more Willingham does each day, the more the tendon hurts the next. The Athletics don’t want to activate Willingham before he is able to go back to back days for the club.
"“I’d like to knock it out, but if you can’t knock it out you want to get it to where you can manage it on a day-to-day basis and play with it,” Willingham said. “If I can take the necessary time off to get it fixed and get it healed and get it back to where I can play every day and not have to worry about it — because this game is hard enough to play when you’re 100 percent — that’s our goal. If we can’t then we’re just going to have to manage it.”"
He has the option of taking the route of teammate Brett Anderson by receiving a platelet-rich injection, but the procedure doesn’t interest Willingham because it would sideline him for two months.
Instead of being shut down, the outfielder will continue undergoing treatments and see how his Achilles’ responds. Because of the uncertainty, Oakland has no set timeframe for Willingham’s return.
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