Last year Ike Davis was reported to have valley fever, a fungal infection which sapped his strength and led to him having a horrific start to the season. Of course he downplayed it all. His quote from last March:
“It’s been the same,” said Davis. “Seriously. I feel great. And I don’t have any symptoms of it. I’m not coughing. I’m not throwing up blood. I’m not doing anything. It’s not even hard to breathe. The doctor said I could play, and just don’t get really, really fatigued. So that’s what we’re doing. And if I get really tired, I kind of just step to the side and take a break ... I don’t think I have an extreme case.”
Flash forward to today and he’s telling a different story. From Adam Rubin, who Davis now tells he was exhausted all the time last spring:
“I had to limit a lot of things last year as far as workload,” Davis said. “I didn’t have a beer all of spring training last year. I went home and laid on the couch. And I usually fish for another six hours every day [after Mets workouts] ... I didn’t say anything to anybody, besides maybe the trainers.”
Guess that teaches us not to take players’ claims about their health at face value.