Chad Billingsley Injury Update – Broken Leg
November 22, 2008 by Stephen Kersey
Filed under Injuries, News
Chad Billingsley, a starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, sustained a broken leg after falling on ice. Billingsley was at his home in Reading, Pennsylvania when he got injured.
The broken bone, which was specifically the fibula in his left leg, required surgery, however the good news is that Billingsley should be ready to pitch at the beginning of spring training.
In 2008, he had the best season of his young career. The 24-year-old right-hander was 16-10 with a 3.14 ERA. Billingsley also had 201 strikeouts in 200.1 innings pitched.
It’s been a rough stretch for Billingsley on and off the field lately. Aside from his broken leg, Billingsley had two sub par starts against the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS. He failed to get out of the second inning both times and gave up a total of ten earned runs in five innings.
A plate around the fibula near the ankle with 5 or 6 screws and a long incision is normally used. Published reports of athlete injuries are often distorted. Was there also a fracture on the tibia. That’s common with a fib fx due to fall. A bimalliolar or “Pott’s Fracture”. Spring training is 88 days away. What will his rehab be? Usually, a splint for a week, a cast for two more weeks, then a walking cast/brace/boot for two or three weeks and rehab to stretch and strenthen. Depending on severity, that’s 6 weeks to 10 weeks. Good thing he’s young!
This is really disappointing that Chad Billingsley fell in an injury, having seen his most successful year in his career. I hope he will recover the broken leg as early as possible. So do the Los Angeles Dodgers fans too.