Buchholz gets ‘good news’ on his back injury

By Maureen Mullen
CSNNE.comFollow @maureenamullen

BOSTON -- Right-hander Clay Buchholz, on the disabled list since June 17 because of a lower back strain, got a second opinion from specialist Dr. Craig Brigham in Charlotte, N.C., this week and also received an injection in his back. He was told the problem is muscular, with no structural damage, and the visit gave him peace of mind.

He said there was nothing on the nerve, Buchholz said. Just a stress reaction on the vertebrae and it was causing the muscle in the side of my back to fire a little bit. Its was definitely just a muscular thing as far as the hurting was and that's basically all I got out of it. I got an injection. He said its just going to take time to heal. Work on some core exercises to get back.

But the right-hander has no timetable yet.

Its going to take until Im comfortable throwing, he said. I dont know how long thats going to be; just hope its sooner than later.

It was definitely good news. Structurally there was no damage . . . I went in thinking they were going to say something bad. But I came out of there in a lot better spirits than when I went it.

The injection, he said, was a mixture of a couple things. Something to numb it a little bit for a little while and then a little bit of cortisone and a couple of other things.