Brewers' Lucroy reached out to Cardinals' Matheny for concussion advice
Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy has had a tough, injury-plagued 2015 season a year after emerging with a breakout campaign. His latest setback is rather significant: He hasn't played in a week due to lingering concussion symptoms after a foul tip incident in Miami last Tuesday.
Lucroy's condition prompted him to reach out to St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, whose playing career was effectively cut short due to a series of head injuries suffered behind the plate.
According to MLB.com's Adam McCalvy, Matheny's main message to Lucroy was not to rush back to duty prematurely: "He told me I have to take my time," Lucroy relayed to McCalvy. "I knew he had gone through it, [but] his was a lot more severe. He took multiple hits, back-to-back days. Mine was a one-shot thing. He just stressed to not get back in there until I feel right and the doctors clear me."
Matheny also recommended Lucroy pay a visit to Dr. Micky Collins, a concussion specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
In speaking with McCalvy, Matheny detailed a bit more about the advice he imparted to Lucroy: "Mostly just pointing him in some of the directions. My suggestion was to try to get in front of somebody that knows this particular injury, because there just aren't that many people who are specialized in it."
The risk in rushing back, Matheny told Lucroy, is huge. According to Lucroy, Matheny stressed that, "...it was not worth a repeat hit when you're not healed up, because that's when things get really, really bad, in terms of not being able to drive, not being able to look at lights, throwing up and nausea and stuff like that. He really stressed, 'Take your time.'"
Hopefully Matheny's advice aids in Lucroy's recovery which, as of Tuesday, hadn't really advanced much over the past week.
