Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich said his back problems were affecting his life off the field as well as during games by the time he decided to have season-ending surgery.
Yelich spoke to reporters for the first time since his surgery on August 16. The Brewers are hopeful that Yelich will be ready for the start of the 2025 season.
“Once I got surgery, once that decision was made, it was to the point where daily living sucked,” Yelich said. “I was really uncomfortable. There was a lot of pain.”
Yelich had a diskectomy to remove the damaged part of a disk in his spine. Dr. Brandon Rebholz performed the surgery in Milwaukee.
“I don’t know how deep I want to get into it, but really it was just like cleaning some stuff out that needed to go and was causing some problems,” Yelich said.
“I attempted to see if I could put it off until the end of the season and be able to finish, but it was kind of a long shot, and I think I knew that (surgery) was my destination at some point.
“I was trying to see if it could be an offseason type of deal, but it just really didn’t respond the way that it needed to in order for that to happen.”
Yelich, 32, has had back issues for several years. Despite this, he was playing well enough this season to earn his third All-Star selection.
He was leading the NL in batting average (.315) and on-base percentage (.406) when he went on the injured list in late July.
Yelich says he feels positive about how his body has reacted to the surgery so far.
“I feel great right now, and after talking with the doctor afterwards, it was something that needed to happen,” Yelich said.
“I should have a pretty good recovery and feel really good going forward, so that’s exciting. It’s almost two weeks out, I’m walking around pretty normal, so everything on that end is pretty good.”
