Joey Votto's Injury

Get well soon, Joey Votto.
Photo Credit: Keith Allison

John Fay's article this morning on Joey Votto's injury was a little disturbing.

First, this quote from Bryan Price, which appeared in another article yesterday (I think?):

"The soreness – I can't say it's completely gone – but it's much more controlled," Price said.
"But the strength deficit is still a concern. To me, it made more sense to get Joey as close to 100 percent – that may not be possible this year – but as close to it as we can and give him a better foundation on which to play as opposed to getting him back at 50 percent because we didn't give him an extra week to 10 days to get that stability back in in his leg."

I teach a human anatomy & physiology course, but I'm certainly not qualified to provide medical analysis. So take the following with a grain of salt: this just seems weird to me. If it's just a quadriceps strain, as was originally reported, it seems like this is something that should be able to heal with rest. But this sounds more like ligament/tendon/fascia/cartilage troubles, which are notoriously slow to heal because they don't receive good blood supply.

And then there's Votto's own comments on the injury:

Asked what he could do now that he couldn't do because of the injury, Votto wouldn't go into specifics.

"That's really none of your business," he said. "I'm not going to tell you that. I'm getting stronger. I don't really want to tell you what I couldn't do before and what I can do."

...

Again, it's Votto's right to keep quiet about the injury to the media. A couple of days before he stayed back on the trip, he was asked if he was healthy.

"I feel fantastic," he said.

We know that wasn't the case.

"I like to lie a lot – I usually just tell people I feel great," Votto said.

I get that he's frustrated, and that he's a private guy. But as a fan, this kind of thing is hard to read without becoming alarmed. Something about it reminds me of Albert Pujols' struggles with plantar fasciitis. While Pujols has been quite good this year, his leg issues dogged him for at least a full season...and there was talk that it might never go away.

So, I worry that Joey Votto is dealing with chronic troubles with his knee.  He's already had part of his meniscus removed, and then had a second surgery to repair some sort of additional damage.  Yes, he was healthy all of last season.  But now, he's suffering from soreness and weakness from the same general area.  Hopefully, this is just a matter of temporary inflammation that can be brought under control.  But ...well, yeah, I'm worried.