Bird: I tried to shrug off injury

GREG Bird spent all spring training trying to convince himself and others that he was fine.

The Yankees first baseman admitted on Sunday he put up a facade regarding the status of his right ankle — where he had a bone spur surgically removed two weeks ago — throughout spring training because he thought the pain would go away, but it did not.

“If I started playing more maybe I’d get used to it, maybe it would turn the corner,” Bird said. “But the more I was on it the worse it got and that’s when it became a problem.”

Bird expects to have the stitches removed today and is targeting a return to baseball in some capacity by May but the oft-injured first baseman has become frustrated with the handful of injuries he has racked up in his short career.

He missed the end of the 2016 season with shoulder surgery and was absent a large chunk of last season when he had to have a small bone in his foot removed last July.

“Injuries suck, they just do. Surgeries suck. I was really, really, in the back of my head I was kind of scared to have another surgery,” Bird said. “It was always kind of there, I guess, just mentally more challenging than physical, but the mental challenge is what’s hard for me.”

Bird, 25, said he was told by doctors he does not have a bad ankle but the first baseman believes the bone spur stemmed from his original foot injury last season when he had a bone bruise.

While Bird said there was relief from the surgery, the bone spur was there and he received a PRP (platelet rich plasma) shot at the end of the season, which the doctors thought would take care of it.

“It was a small little sliver at the time,” Bird said. “And in the spot that it was in, it was very common.”

Bird added the team was aware of it, but there was no discussion to address it in the offseason because he said it was not a problem at that time.

“I was rehabbing in the offseason and in January I turned a corner and I felt good,” he said. “Every step of the way I progressed and it kept up. When I started hitting, started running, started moving more I was fine.”

Bird said he received treatment throughout spring training, though not every day, but the pain finally reached a point where he said he could not stand up by the end of a game.

The next day he was scratched from the lineup.

“I'm lucky I didn’t blow my ankle out,” he said. “I really think it will heal up and I’ll move on. Just a matter of time.”