professional baseball Kiwoom Heroes Ronnie Dawson (29) is carefully preparing to return after being injured.
“Dawson received his third treatment today (6th) at Seoul Samsung Hospital,” Kiwoom said ahead of the “2024 Shinhan Bank SOL Bank KBO League” SSG match at Gocheok Sky Dome in Seoul on the 6th. He will be examined again at Korea University Guro Hospital tomorrow (7th).”
Dawson, who joined Kiwoom as an alternative foreign hitter for Edison Russell last year, was not highly anticipated due to his playing situation in the U.S. independent league and the size of his contract, which totaled only $85,000 (about 116.77 million won), but he showed good performance with a batting average of 336 (77 hits in 229 at-bats), three homers, 29 RBIs, 37 runs and nine steals in 57 games, and OPS.852 after the end of the season, and he renewed his contract for a total of $600,000 (about 824.94 million won). He also showed good performance in 95 games this season with a batting average of 330 (126 hits in 382 at-bats), 11 homers, 57 RBIs, 69 runs and two steals, OPS.907 and was selected as the All-Star Best 12.
Dawson was hit by an unexpected injury. While playing defense against NC Dinos on March 31, he collided with Lee Yong-kyu and injured his right anterior cruciate ligament. While most likely to be out for the season, he is being diagnosed at various hospitals to determine the exact extent of his injury and plan his rehabilitation.
Coach Hong Won-ki said, “I just know that Dawson is receiving medical treatment. We can think about the future only when Dawson’s medical results are accurate and the direction of rehabilitation is set. He said, “I will do well in the team’s part.” Kiwoom said, “There is a difference between the second diagnosis I received on the 1st and the third diagnosis I received today. In the third examination, the degree of injury was found to be less than that of the second examination. Since the injury is a sensitive area, the player also wants accurate diagnosis results. We plan to set a future schedule by combining the results of the re-examination tomorrow.”
Dawson has yet to finalize his rehabilitation plan because each hospital has different opinions. There have been various opinions ranging from one to two months of rehabilitation is sufficient to need surgery. However, even if he plans to return to rehabilitation without surgery, his return to this season is uncertain. If rehabilitation takes two months, the return time will be in early October, when the regular season is almost over. Whatever the decision is made, the need for an injured replacement foreigner is not much different.
Kiwoom quickly sought for a foreign hitter to replace his injury. “I don’t think Dawson will be able to return this year. Even though there is only one month left in the season, it is a professional to do his best until the end. We are looking for a foreign hitter to replace his injury. I want to tell you good news as soon as possible,” Kiwoom’s general manager Ko Hyung-wook said. “We will quickly bring in a foreign hitter to replace his injury.”
Fans are watching with concern whether Dawson, who has yet to make a rehabilitation plan due to the mixed results, will be able to successfully recover from his injury and return healthy this year or next season. 메이저놀이터
