Joe Mauer’s injury worries decline as hospital determines viral flu for cause of weakness
Joe Mauer was taken to the St. Petersburg hospital after Thursday night’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays. Coming out of a 4 – 3 loss to the Florida club, Mauer was taken straight to the medical facility for an evaluation on his ‘bilateral leg weakness’. The Minnesota Twins hitter was lucky to say the least, as the doctors determined a viral flu instead of a physical injury for the player’s weakness.
It was first concluded that the situation had come to fold due to post symptoms from his left knee surgery in 2010. Manager, Ron Gardenhire however, was gratified to hear the flu being the cause for the star’s predicament. In a way, the Twins considered this as good news.
"That really kind of helps us through this whole process of the leg stuff," Gardenhire said. "It tells us that there's probably a reason why he's been so sore, and that's [because] his system is fighting a viral infection. It kind of helps us in knowing a little bit better in where we stand and what's really going on."
The manager explained that Mauer’s condition during Spring Training was optimal. He was feeling good during exhibition games in the Grapefruit League, and was routinely in practice starting from 6:00 am in the morning.
General Manager, Bill Smith, recently spoke of the player’s return and has estimated the time line to be around two weeks- an assessment that Gardenhire is sticking strong too as well. In other words, he does not want to see Mauer out of commission for a longer period of time.
"I hope so, yeah," Gardenhire said. "[Mauer] was going along pretty good, and feeling pretty good, until this last weekend ... and I think this probably tells us a little bit more about the virus and all that stuff. We feel pretty good about that now."
The skipper explained that the team was worried yesterday. Mauer, however, felt more concerned though as he desires nothing other than playing on the field. That, however, seems hard when the star is aching bad and is sore everywhere.
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