New York (AFP) – New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge’s rib injury is healing, but he’s still not ready to resume baseball activities, the Major League Baseball club said Friday. Judge, who won his third American League Most Valuable Player award last season, hasn’t played since he was diagnosed with a stress fracture of the first rib on his right side on June 4, after playing through pain over several weeks.
Speaking before the Yankees launched the second half of their MLB season with a home game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Judge said he remained optimistic he would return this season. “I don’t see why I wouldn’t,” said Judge, who called the latest medical scans showing some healing a positive result, even though he has not yet been able to resume upper body workouts.
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Judge, 34, has 17 home runs with a .248 batting average and 38 runs-batted-in in 59 games this season. Since he went on the injured list on June 5, the Yankees are 18-19 and have slipped three games behind the first-place Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East division. Judge suffered a stress fracture of the same rib and a partially collapsed lung while attempting a diving catch. He said last month he thought he suffered the latest injury while trying to make a diving catch and avoid colliding with teammate Jazz Chisholm in an April 26 game in Houston.
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