Plantar fasciitis can be a nagging, serious injury for position players, but the Dodgers are downplaying news that reigning Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw has been diagnosed with the foot injury.
According to manager Don Mattingly he only feels the discomfort in his foot when he’s running and it has no impact on his pitching, so the Dodgers’ training staff is “trying different tape and things at night to help it go away.”
For a pitcher obviously a foot injury is a whole lot better than an arm injury, but plantar fasciitis tends not to go away quickly and enough position players have struggled to play through it that it’s natural to wonder if Kershaw’s mechanics could be negatively altered by the pain.
Mattingly revealed to Ken Gurnick of MLB.com that Kershaw been getting treatment for more than a week already. He allowed three runs over seven innings against the Phillies in his last start Monday and allowed a season-high five runs over 5.2 innings against the Brewers last week.