The Detroit Tigers added outfielder Delmon Young to their ALCS roster to replace the injured Magglio Ordonez, who broke his surgically repaired right ankle in Game 1 on Saturday.
Young, a mid-season acquisition who hit .316 with 3 HR's in the Tigers first-round victory over the New York Yankees, injured his oblique muscle in a Game 5 swing against New York.
Oblique injuries can take up to a month to recover from, and many in Detroit feared that Young might miss the rest of the post-season:
"They hit, they throw, everything's rotational. And that's basically what you're doing with your obliques, you're rotating your rib cage," Oakland Athletics trainer Steve Sayles told USA Today. "When you send (players) back to activity, you have to train them for the high-speed movements they're making. If they were football players and everything was straight ahead, it wouldn't take as long."
Right now, it's unclear whether Young's return has more to do with his recovery or Detroit's lack of other options within their organization to replace Ordonez. The Tigers didn't have a deep line-up even before the injuries to two of their key hitters, putting even more pressure on Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez.