A-Rod gets second opinion; MRI doesn't show quad strain

Alex Rodriguez thinks he’s healthy enough to play, as does a doctor who examined his MRI exam results, but the Yankees star still travelled to Tampa to rehab his quad injury Wednesday, while the team is set to continue their series in Texas.

The doctor who gave a second opinion on A-Rod’s Grade 1 quad strain Wednesday said that he appears to be healthy and there is no strain.

"He asked me to look at and I spent about 20 minutes going over it, particularly on the quadriceps muscle and to be perfectly honest I don’t see any type of injury there," Dr. Michael Gross chief of orthopedics at Hackensack Medical Center said in an interview on WFAN.

The Yankees third baseman, believing that the team is misrepresenting his quadriceps injury simply to collect insurance money, had the second opinion on his injury to confirm he is healthy.

"To be perfectly honest,'' Gross told WFAN host Mike Francesa, "I don't see any sort of injury there.''

Dr. Gross said that a strain of that level is sometimes difficult to decipher on an MRI, but he did talk to Rodriguez over the phone.

"I asked him if anything hurt and he said to me, 'No.' If there’s no pain to me then there’s no injury," Dr. Gross said.

"I asked him, do you think you're fit to play. And he said, '100-percent'"

Rodriguez, who's earning $28 million this season, was scheduled to be activated Monday for the first time this season after undergoing January hip surgery. Yet, the Yankees ordered him to undergo an MRI in New York where he was diagnosed with a Grade 1 strained quadriceps, keeping him sidelined at least another week to 10 days.

The Yankees have not determined whether they will attempt to send Rodriguez on another rehab assignment, but he is adamantly opposed to go on another 20-day assignment, according to a person close to Rodriguez but unauthorized to speak publicly.

Rodriguez's medical status has been an ongoing point of contention. When Rodriguez tweeted news he was cleared to begin a July rehab assignment, it elicited a profane response from general manager Brian Cashman. Club president Randy Levine has vehemently denied insinuations the club prefer he be declared physically unfit to play.

"We do want him back," Levine told USA TODAY Sports two days before Rodriguez's quad injury emerged. "We just want to make sure he's ready to come back. If he's healthy, he's coming back."

And the plot thickens.