The Official Site of Chase Utley

Tue, Dec 16th 2008, 07:39

Chase has sights set on opening day

CHASE UTLEY limped badly as he walked into the interview room in the basement of Citizens Bank Park. Just kidding, everybody. LOL. Utley grinned as he continued to stride, normally now, to the podium.

Three weeks after hip surgery that once seemed to cast a shadow over the Phillies’ championship defense long before it even began, the All-Star second baseman was in a playful mood that probably conveyed his feelings more accurately than his words.

The headline: He expects to be ready to play by the time the Phils open the season April 5 at home against the Atlanta Braves.

Some early reports suggested he could miss the first 2 months. The team had seemed prepared to do without him until May 1.

“Things are progressing well,” said Utley, who had surgery Nov. 24. “I don’t expect any setbacks. If there are no setbacks, I expect to be ready to go. I would like to [play in spring-training games], absolutely. We’ll just have to see how it goes. The most important thing is to be healthy.”

Head athletic trainer Scott Sheridan offered only a mild precaution.

“The things they warned us about was not to try to do too much early on,” he said. “The strength stuff and the motion part starts around 6 weeks. If we can get to that point without a whole lot of trouble, I think we’re in good shape. After the 6-week period, we’ll have a lot better idea of how aggressive we can be. It’s a fine line between being aggressive and being stupid, for lack of a better word.

“We’re 3 weeks out, so it’s still early. But we had a followup with his physician last week, which went very well. So certainly right now, I’m as optimistic as Chase is that, as long as things continue to progress, he’ll be fine.”

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