Ryan Howard underwent surgery for a partially ruptured Achilles tendon on Oct. 12 of last year.  I had the same surgery a little over two months later.  Recovery is hard.

After the first six weeks of being unable to bear weight on the foot, I started physical therapy.  So did Howard.  Based on my own experience thus far, I wouldn't expect Howard to miss more than a couple weeks of the season, maybe not even that.

Three weeks after starting PT, I had full range of motion back; the doctor expected it to take four weeks.  Now I'm working on regaining the strength with the doctor thinking that should take another month before my reflexes return to normal and I can do things like drive.  After that I should be able to ease back into exercise.  Sometime between four and six months out from the surgery, I should be able to return to normal activity.  And so should Howard.

$25 million dollar man Ryan Howard will start the season on the DL.

Photo by schmidjon, used under creative commons license.

Now admittedly, Howard and I are very different individuals.  He weighs more than me, he is more athletic and, presumably, in better shape than me, and his ruptured tendon was in the opposite leg than mine.  He also gets top-notch medical care paid for by the Phillies and doesn't have to balance his Physical Therapy against his insurance deductible.  That should offer him a lot more opportunities to rebuild his strength faster than I will.

A couple of sources have made a big deal of the suture line -- something which I can first handedly assure hurts -- claiming either a delayed reaction, or the formation of a seroma along the suture line.   The first is unlikely as the skin sutures should have been removed two or three weeks following surgery and it's now over 4.5 months later, and the second is a not uncommon reaction, and one that isn't likely to cause a setback.

Now either the Phillies are guilty of a little misinformation when it comes to projecting his return, or they know something about Howard that we don't know.  Since even without him, they are favorites to win the National League, disinformation doesn't seem necessary.

It may be that Ryan, a rather big guy, hasn't benefitted weight-wise from the time on the shelf, and that they figure he'll need a little extra time to get back into game shape, or that some sort of setback that we haven't heard about really did occur, something which seems unlikely.

That means that Howard is likely to be back before May rolls around maybe even by opening day, not closer to June as is commonly being projected.  Having Howard back in the lineup early in the season should mean the Phillies are the team to beat from day one, and that the window to take advantage of their depleted lineup will be a short one.

For fantasy players, this information could mean that Howard will be greatly undervalued on draft day.  So root for him to avoid complications and for the Phillies, even without needing to, to be practicing a bit of misinformation on the rest of the NL.

Personally, based on my ruptured Achilles and the recovery process so far, I'll be considering Howard come draft day.  Yeah, Achilles surgery isn't fun, but the more functionality is returning for me, the more I believe that Howard will be ready within a few weeks of opening day.  He's already taking batting practice and doing light fielding drills.  It should only get better from there.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites