PITTSBURGH — Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli remains on the seven-day disabled list with what team trainer Todd Tomczyk referred to Wednesday as post-concussion symptoms.
“He was evaluated by our group of physicians back here in Pittsburgh and we are primarily treating him for post-concussive symptoms,” Tomczyk said. “He was re-examined once again yesterday by our group of physicians and he was cleared to resume light exertion activities.”
Cervelli performed a 20-minute stationary bike routine while his heart rate was monitored. The team will wait to see how he responds to that before detailing the next step in his recovery.
The team’s belief is that Cervelli’s continued symptoms all still stem from the same incident June 6 in Baltimore, when he was hit in the mask by a foul tip. That’s despite the fact that he was cleared to return to action June 14 and played in four games from June 14 to 19 before again landing on the disabled list.
Then there’s also the matter of the viral infection that Cervelli had been suffering, which Tomczyk does not believe is a concern, but could have confused because of similar symptoms to a concussion.
“There’s a lot of symptoms that viruses create or present, such as a headache, such as dizziness, that could be similar symptoms that are involved with concussive-like symptoms, so that’s why he wanted to make sure we got back in our hands with our group of experts who know him the best,” Tomczyk said.
MEADOWS ON THE MEND
Triple-A outfielder Austin Meadows has had his rehab for his strained right hamstring and is expected to miss a total of two to four weeks. He’s been on the minor-league disabled list since June 22. The team expects Meadows to make a full recovery, but this is his third hamstring injury overall and his second on the same leg in the last two years, which is a concerning trend.
“It’s rather arduous and head-scratching for me personally,” Tomczyk said. “I don’t want to speak for the rest of our performance team, but I take these injuries personally, whether they’re in the minor leagues or the major leagues. We always debrief as a performance team about what we can do differently. We feel horrible for Austin that he injured his hamstring again. That’s why we will dig deeper and see how we can prevent this from happening in the future.”
