Juan Nicasio spoke to the media yesterday about two weeks after a line drive to the head left the Rockies pitcher with a fractured neck and the 24-year-old right-hander said: “I want to pitch again.”
Nicasio underwent surgery on a fractured C-1 vertebrae, which is the same injury that paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve and often leads to significant long-term problems. However, according to Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post in Nicasio’s case “the only visible sign of his ordeal was the neck brace he wore to the press conference.”
If everything continues to go well, Nicasio could be cleared to pitch in the Dominican instructional league as soon as November. “I’m lucky,” Nicasio said. “God was very good to me. Some people who have that injury don’t live.”
