Yankees' Mark Teixeira Receiving Treatment For Severely Inflamed Airways
NEW YORK (WFAN/AP) -- Mark Teixeira is used to getting off to a cold start, but this is something new entirely.
The Yankees' struggling first baseman said Wednesday he had been playing through a terrible cough due to severely inflamed airways.
He was examined by a chest specialist at New York Presbyterian Hospital before the team's 4-1 loss to Tampa Bay, and received medication that he hopes will clear up the problem within a week.
"I'm healthy, other than I can't breathe," said Teixeira, who called the diagnosis a huge relief. "It's just annoying more than anything. ... It sounds like I'm going to choke to death."
Teixeira said the issue started after the team's Welcome Home Dinner on April 12.
"I caught something at that Welcome Home Dinner," he said. "That caused a cough, and because of our travel schedule and the weather's been bad and having to play every day, I just never got over the cough part of it. It just got worse and worse, to the point that my chest is basically closed up now."
The first baseman is batting .217 with four home runs and 17 RBIs.
Meanwhile, Yankees reserve infielder Eric Chavez is eligible to come off the 7-day disabled list for concussions on Thursday, but hadn't yet been cleared to play by Major League Baseball because he didn't do well on one of the cognitive tests.
Chavez said he felt 100 percent Wednesday for the first time since the injury.
Do you think the soon-to-be healthy Teixeira is about to catch fire? Sound off below...
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