Phillies officials sounded optimistic yesterday that Utley will be available to play most of the 2009 season, which begins April 5 against the Atlanta Braves at Citizens Bank Park. They also were optimistic that Utley will be the same Utley, the one who famously plays with reckless abandon, when he returns.
"I don't look to change the way he plays," said Scott Sheridan, the Phillies' head athletic trainer. "That's certainly not the goal of surgery. The goal here is to promote his health for the long term.
"This was not something he probably could continue to play with, and certainly needed to be addressed surgically, otherwise we wouldn't be doing it," Sheridan said.
The Phillies also said they don't expect Utley to change his well-regarded work ethic.
What might change?
"Exercise routines," Sheridan said. "His preparation of the game from the baseball side of things - I certainly wouldn't want to change anything with that. And if you think I can convince Chase to change his routine, you're crazy."
Utley, 29, has had several diagnostic studies of his hip since the Phillies won the World Series on Oct. 29. Team physician Michael Ciccotti and Bryan Kelly, a hip specialist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, also evaluated him.
Kelly will perform the surgery next week.
Sheridan said there wasn't a specific incident in which Utley, who was not available for comment, injured the hip. Instead, he might have started to feel some discomfort in his off-season workouts before spring training.
"It was kind of a progressive history for him," Sheridan said. "He had some symptoms in spring training. He had some symptoms in July. It was really on and off throughout the season."
