MLB star Mike Trout is set for another spell on the side-lines following a wrist injury.
The three-time MVP was forced to leave the game in the eighth inning after feeling some discomfort in the Los Angeles Angels’ 10-3 defeat to the San Diego Padres on Monday. The centre fielder seemed to hurt his wrist when he fouled off of a 0-1 pitch from Nick Martinez.
After the game, the 31-year-old described the pain he felt and is now set to miss 4-8 weeks due to a fractured bone in his wrist. "I just took a swing and something felt uncomfortable," Trout told reporters after the game. "Just waiting on getting some scans and hope for the best.
"It doesn't feel great. I mean, there's no two ways to it. Hopefully just a sprained wrist. I can't describe the pain I felt. I never felt it before, ever, before this. I never had wrist problems or anything. Just freak things." Trout is now likely to be out until at least early August and possibly into September and is set to get a second opinion to decide on whether he will need surgery.
“I kind of knew it wasn’t good,” Trout added. “It’s just a freak thing. I had a lot of guys reach out who had the surgery or the injury before. Some guys came back in four weeks. Some guys took longer. We’ll see how it goes.” The player is regarded as one of the best baseball players of all time and generally considered as the greatest five-tool player in the world.
But he has endured a nightmare run of injuries having sustained foot, leg, and arm issues which have caused him to miss a large portion of multiple seasons. The 11-time All-Star missed nearly half of 2019 with leg, calf, and toe problems, before spending roughly a third of 2021 on the sidelines with elbow and calf injuries.
The three-time MVP missed half of last season with hand and back problems, and he had been healthy throughout the current campaign until his latest injury sustained on Monday. Excluding 2023, Trout has missed 537 games over his career and that number will now only increase.
On Thursday, Trout was selected for his 11th All-Star game, but is gutted he will miss it for the third straight year. “It’s tough,” he said. “I was really looking forward to it. It’s frustrating.”
Trout said he was informed by the training staff that it was just an unfortunate injury that happened to occur with one swing of the bat. “Looking back, I had no soreness or anything like that,” he continued. “Just felt something really painful and weird.
“Talking to other guys, it's basically the same thing that happened to them. It’s frustrating because my body has felt great. I had a routine and was sticking with it and this freak thing happens. But at least it’s not crazy serious or season-ending.”
