Cutting-Edge Procedure May Get Nady Back By June

According to Peter Abraham, Xavier Nady will try to quicken his return to the field by attempting a cutting-edge medical procedure on his injured right elbow.

Nady told The Journal News today that he is having platelet-rich plasma injected directly into the area around his partially torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. The procedure was successfully used by right-handed reliever Takashi Saito last season. Saito, who is now with the Red Sox, was able to avoid Tommy John Surgery. Like Nady, he had a partial tear of the ulnar collateral ligament.

Blood drawn from Nady’s body is spun to isolate the platelets, which clot and promote healing of the ligament. The platelets are 10 times more concentrated that normal blood. It is believed that Saito and Nady are the only baseball players to have had this procedure done.

Abraham went on to say that Nady hopes the procedure will enable him to return by the end of this month or the beginning of June. Hopefully this works, Nady adds a lot of depth to the roster and with all the injuries piling up they can use all the depth the can get. I guess everyone heals differently, but as Nady says in the article, "If Saito was able to come back as a pitcher, that is a good sign for [him]." So I'd have to assume there's a good chance it will work.