Anthony Rendon revealed Friday he has a tibia fracture.
In his first substantial comments to reporters in months, Rendon said he went searching for a second opinion on his left shin contusion because he was in pain. He was told about the fracture during the Angels’ series against the Astros in Houston (Aug. 11-13).
“I was still in pain,” Rendon said. “Kept reaching out to more doctors. Kept on asking questions. No one had an answer to why I was still in pain. Finally got more images on what it was.”
When asked about how long the Angels have known about Rendon’s tibia fracture, manager Phil Nevin said there are similarities between a deep bone contusion and a tibia fracture.
“I’m not in the medical side of it,” Nevin prefaced, adding, “we talked about when he [got hurt], how bad the bone bruise was, that it’s similar to what even a fracture is. Bone bruise, fracture, either way, he’s unable to play right now. We’re trying to get him back to where he is.”
There are similarities between the two injury descriptions, said Dr. Alan Beyer, an orthopedic surgeon and executive medical director of the Hoag Orthopedic Institute.
Beyer is not Rendon’s physician and spoke to The Times as an expert on the injury.
“Either a stress fracture of the tibia or deep shin contusion, which are going to look the same on a bone scan or an MRI scan,” Beyer said. “It’s not like he had a traumatic tibia fracture, like getting hit by a truck. So, it’s really semantics.”
