According to a recent story by the Courier-Post, chronic knee pain could end Chase Utley’s career.
Utley, who left the Philadelphia Phillies spring training camp on Monday to see a knee specialist, has been suffering from a combination of damaged cartilage and severe tendinitis in both knees.
“I worry about Chase because it’s a chronic knee problem,” Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. told the Courier-Post.
“About his career? I don’t know.”
Last season knee issues kept Utley out of the lineup until May, but even when he was playing his production slipped considerably. He hit only .259 with 11 home runs and 44 RBIs, well off his career averages of .290/27/101.
“Will he ever be 100 percent? I don’t know about that,” manager Charlie Manuel said last week. “He might never be that.”
Utley, too, has acknowledged it’s an injury that will never heal and, at best, can be managed.
In his 9 years in the league Utley, 33, has hit 188 home runs and driven in 694 runs.
Original Story:
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March 20, 2012
