Some slightly good news on the Wrath front today – God must have used his allotment on the game – as Chicago Cubs center fielder Marlon Byrd told folks he expects to be back in four to six weeks after suffering fractures in his face last weekend.
“I’m not really sure [when I’ll return],” Byrd told reporters before the game today. “They are looking at four to six weeks, and I think that timetable is about right. You can’t rush the fractures. That takes time to heal.”
That could bring Byrd back by the first week of July, which would be a welcome surprise after such a horrific injury.
“I didn’t want to lose my vision,” Byrd said. “The re-bleeding, they were worried about that. The clot, making sure that healed and washed away. And the pressure in the eye, they didn’t want to mess with that. I got off the dilating drops. I’m still on the steroid drops. I’ve got an appointment [Wednesday], and hopefully I can get a full clean bill of health.”
Byrd says the doctors have told him he was extremely lucky not to suffer a fracture of the orbital (which surrounds the eye), which would have made his prognosis much murkier. The closer you get to the eye, the worse things can get, for obvious reasons.