Hospital checkups in Korea show that there are no major abnormalities. Nevertheless, he is still in pain and is anxious about his physical condition. The pace of rehabilitation is slow. I will listen to my doctor’s opinion in the U.S. and follow him. It reminds me of Plutko, a foreign pitcher of the LG Twins last year.
Doosan Bears foreign pitcher Alcantara departed for the U.S. on Thursday morning. He wanted to have his doctor in the U.S. check him up.안전놀이터
Ahead of the match against LG at Jamsil Stadium on Thursday, Doosan’s public relations team said, “Alcantara left for the U.S. this morning. She will go to the U.S. for a thorough checkup. She will return home on the 8th or 9th.”
Alcantara complained of elbow pain after seven scoreless innings against Kiwoom on April 21. While rehabilitating on the injured list, he was recently examined at three domestic hospitals, and was diagnosed with a sprained right elbow. A Doosan official said, “The result of the examination is not much higher. However, the player wants to see his doctor in person due to constant anxiety.”
Alcantara recently underwent rehabilitation training, including playing catch, and complained of fine pain. Eventually, he couldn’t fully believe the results of the domestic hospital examination and asked the club to go to his doctor in the U.S. to undergo the examination and finally check it out.
There has been a growing sense of distance between the players and the club. “I played catch ball, but I have nothing more to say. I’m not in a good mood,” coach Lee Seung-yeop said of Alcantara on Tuesday. “No one knows when Alcantara will return. We have to wait and see the situation, but if it takes longer, we have to do something else. I hope Alcantara will come back while watching the situation.”
“Since foreign players play an important role, I think I have to go and get the results of the examination first and then make a decision again,” Lee said before the match on Thursday. “It hurts my heart, but what should I do?”
Alcantara won 20 games (two losses) with the Doosan Bears in 2020 and left with the Hanshin Tigers on a two-year contract the following year. He returned to Doosan last year and recorded 13 wins and nine losses with a 2.67 ERA in 31 games. He renewed his contract for a total of 1.5 million U.S. dollars this year, and posted one win, one loss and a 2.30 ERA in five starts (31 ⅓ innings) before his injury.
Alcantara’s situation is similar to Plutko’s behavior last year. Plutko was active in 17 games in the first half of last year with 11 wins and one loss and an earned run average of 2.21. However, he had a break after contracting COVID-19 in the second half, and left the club due to a bruised left pelvic bone in late August. Hospital checkups predicted four to five weeks of rehabilitation. However, his rehabilitation schedule continued to increase.
During the rehabilitation process, Plutko and the training part had different opinions. Plutko couldn’t keep up with the rehabilitation program of the training part. There was no major abnormality in the hospital examination results, but the player felt that he was not in perfect condition and was passive in the rehabilitation process.
Plutko’s personal doctor in the U.S. and his medical team and LG’s training team had mixed views over the results of hospital checkups. Plutko slowed down the rehabilitation process depending on his doctor’s opinion. “It is up to Plutko himself (to decide when to return). He will have to make the decision on his own,” Yeom Kyung-yeop, the coach, complained while watching the results. He was similar to Plutko’s current coach Lee Seung-yeop.
In the end, Plutko did not return until the end of the regular season. After failing to appear in the actual game, Yeom Kyung-yeop decided to exclude Plutko from the Korean Series entry, and he left for the U.S. after the regular season ended and ahead of the Korean Series. The goodbye was not smooth.