If you needed any reassurance as to why A-Rod wasn’t up to par in the post-season, the doctor, Dr. Bryan Kelly, who’s set to perform surgery on the All-Star third baseman says that his dramatic fall-off was most certainly associated with his ailing hip and in fact, he’s quite “surprised A-Rod was able to play at all with a hip that looked like that.” He goes on to say, “Most people would not be able to play with a hip function like this and the imaging that looked like his,” he told the New York Post.
As you are well aware, the Yankees announced last month that A-Rod was in need of surgery on his hip to repair a torn labrum and bone impingement, and we previously expected to undergo the procedure in mid-January, but as the NY Post reports now—it is being re-scheduled to the next two-four weeks:
A-Rod hit .272 with 18 home runs and 57 RBIs in 2012. He drew the ire of Yankees fans during a postseason that included poor play, benchings and a flirting controversy at Yankee Stadium.
Kelly said A-Rod’s ability to hit high-speed pitches, with “zero degrees of motion through his hip,” became a “mechanical impossibility.”
“He was not able to play at the level he needed to, directly as a result of the injury he has,” he told the Post. “I looked at the pictures, and there is no doubt the injury was what caused the reduction of performance.”
Kelly attributed the injury to a combination of hereditary and developmental factors — not A-Rod’s admitted steroid use.
“I can say with 100 percent certainty this is not a steroid injury at all,” said Kelly. “This is a mechanical injury, and mechanics are something you are born with.”
Source: CBS
