Utility man Nick Green's "dead leg" appears to be far more serious than most thought it was.
Green was sent home to Boston on Monday to get checked out by team doctor Tom Gill. In the past few weeks, he has been hampered by a lack of strength in his right leg, but Gill and the rest of the Sox medical staff believe that the dead leg could stem from a disc problem in his back.
"I think [Dr. Gill] thinks there's a little bit — it might be disc related," manager Terry Francona told Projo.com. "So now, he'll stay in Boston the next couple of days and work with [rehab specialist] Scott Waugh. We'll try to get a little bit better handle on where to go with him and how to proceed."
Green initially believed the leg problem was due to extra swings he was taking in the Red Sox batting cage during games.
"To be honest with you, I don't think anybody thought it was back related," Francona said. "He didn't. All the symptoms were that he thought he had hit one day too much in the cage. We set up this machine we got working so you can hit by yourself. He hit for so long I think he felt like he fatigued it. That's kind of what we were going on."
