ARLINGTON, Texas -- Texas Rangers infielder Kevin Kouzmanoff is likely to have surgery to repair a herniated disk that is causing some numbness down his right leg.
Kouzmanoff said Tuesday that back specialist Dr. Drew Dossett has recommended surgery and that he'll fly to California with the team later this week to get a second opinion. But Kouzmanoff, who left Tuesday's game in Oakland with stiffness, sounds resigned to inevitable surgery.
"It's bad timing," said Kouzmanoff, who hit .326 with two homers and 10 RBIs filling in for the injured Adrian Beltre the past few weeks. "It was fun. I miss these guys. I miss being in the lineup every day."
Kouzmanoff said the recovery time if he has the surgery is seven to 12 weeks.
The 32-year-old got an epidural injection last week from Dossett and that did help alleviate the stiffness. But he's felt tingling in his leg even after the injection, which signaled to him that something else was wrong.
Kouzmanoff has dealt with lower back pain for nearly 10 years after he fell down some dugout stairs as he tried to track down a fly ball in the Arizona Fall League in 2004. He's been able to manage the pain, but it appears now he'll need surgery.
In other Rangers injury news, second baseman Jurickson Profar was cleared to swing a bat Tuesday and will start throwing in a week after an MRI showed a muscle in his shoulder has healed.
Profar is on the 60-day disabled list and can't be activated until the end of May anyway, though the club has not put a firm timetable on his return.
