Injury updates: Milledge, Jones

Neal Huntington discussed the injuries of Lastings Milledge and Garrett Jones on Sunday:

Milledge strained left oblique isn’t as serious as they thought, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be out the rest of the season.

“It’s not the show-stopping pain you typically get from an oblique strain, where it feels like someone stuck a knife in your ribs,” Huntington said. “It’s more of a dull ache, which is good, but at the same time, much like we saw [first baseman] Jeff Clement go through last year, where he tried to rush himself back and hide [the pain], he ended up tearing and hurting his oblique pretty significantly, and now he was set back into November with his offseason [work]. So we want to make sure we don’t put Lastings into that situation.”

“It’s not day-to-day, but it’s not season-ending yet, either. We may get to the end of the season and he’s not able to get into a game, and that’s OK. But we also don’t want to close the door by saying it’s definitely a season-ending injury.”

Huntington said that Jones issues are not chronic even though he suffered a similar injury twice last season. Garrett is currently listed as day-to-day.

“If you continue to stretch the ligaments and tendons, then yes, it may become a surgical issue,” Huntington said. “But also, a lot of guys are able to go with worse that don’t need surgery. It’s going to be a matter of, as he continues to progress and as our doctors continue to get looks at it, they’ll make that determination.”