May 29 -- MYERS: 'LONG SHOT' TO PITCH AGAIN IN '09

BY SCOTT LAUBER

Having made his way back from New York, Brett Myers was sitting in the Phillies' clubhouse after tonight's 5-4 win over the Nationals. And he spoke candidly -- and volumniously -- about his gut-wrenching, but ultimately sensible, decision to have hip surgery. The procedure, which is expected to sideline Myers until at least September and possibly for the duration of the season, will be performed next week by Dr. Bryan Kelly at the Hospital For Special Surgery in New York. Kelly is the hip specialist who operated on Chase Utley in November.

Here's a partial transcript of Myers' comments:

"I didn't expect it to be as bad as it was. [Kelly] pretty much flat-out today told me that he can give me a cortisone shot, but that's just going to make it worse. Any time 'hip replacement' comes out of a doctor's mouth, that's not good. He made it clear that further damage could lead to that.

"I've never had surgery before, so I don't know what kind of pain I'm going to be in. He told me it's similar to Chase's, but he's more precautious with pitchers than he would be with position players because of the constant use of the hip and the leg and the way we contort our bodies. I told him, 'I want to be back in September,' but he's like, 'It's kind of a long shot.'

"When he told me today that there's a chance, if I do the cortisone shot, you could mess the labrum up more, wear the cartilage down more. A cortisone shot may relieve some of the pain and pressure, but it's not going to relieve the popping and the clicking and the locking up of the hip. I was like, 'I can get through that. I've went through that pretty much the whole year.' But he also told me, 'You can hurt your arm possibly because you'll lose strength in your hip, and you won't be using your lower half to throw the ball.' I'm like, 'That makes sense, too. Is there any way away from surgery?' He's like, 'No, regardless of whether you finish pitching this year or get it now, it's going to have to be done, and if you tear it even more or mess it up even more, in five or 10 years, there's a possibility of a hip replacement.' So, I was like, 'Uh, can we go now?' I mean, it's not painful to walk or anything like that, so I didn't think it was anything serious.

"If you read [Kelly's] credentials, they're impeccable. It didn't matter if he did Chase's or not. There's only three specialists in the United States, I guess, and he's the top one. It's a little more comforting that he's done a whole bunch of them. He told me today that he's done more than 1,500 of them. I guess every week he has at least five or six. He knows what he's doing. I was a little more comfortable with how he explained it to me. It wasn't as bad after talking with him and asking about recovery time and where the incision's got to go and all that other stuff you might want to know before surgery. Of course, you're nervous and scared, but it was going to happen regardless. It was better now than after the season.

"The thing with free agency really doesn't come into factor. The only thing that would is that if the team knows at the end of the year that I absolutely have to have surgery and I'm still hurt, then they have nothing to kind of look at to see if I'm going to be healthy. If I get it now, then they'll at least know by the end of the season if I'm healthy."