Schilling to have surgery on ankle Wed. if MRI shows no infection

BOSTON -- Boston Red Sox ace Curt Schilling will have surgery on his injured right ankle as long as an MRI shows no problems with infection, the team's doctor said before the World Series victory parade on Saturday.

Dr. Bill Morgan checked Schilling before the parade and said "he looked improved." An MRI is planned for Monday, with surgery possible on Wednesday.

"He wants to have it done yesterday, but we have to make sure that everything's where it has to be for right now," Morgan said. "Right now everything looks good but it's still a little red where the tissues are. We don't want to make incisions through that."

Schilling, who was walking with crutches and a cast on Saturday, has a torn tendon sheath in his right ankle that hobbled him during his first start of the AL Championship Series against the New York Yankees. In order to allow him to pitch the sixth game of the ALCS, doctors stitched his tendon in place so it didn't flop over the ankle bone.

The procedure was repeated before Game 2 of the World Series, and Schilling made a second strong start. But the second time caused Schilling more pain and Morgan said he wasn't sure it could be repeated for a third outing.

Schilling has since said that he could not have made his start in Game 6 of the Series, but it became moot when the Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games for Boston's first world championship since 1918.

"We're shooting now for Wednesday," Schilling said in the clubhouse at Fenway Park. "It's important now to try to get healthy and get ready for next spring."

Morgan and Dr. George Theodore will perform the operation, which involves making a new sheath and putting the tendon in it. Schilling is expected to be in a cast four to six weeks and need six more weeks of rehabilitation.

"We just want to make sure that there's no evidence of infection and that the tendon looks healthy," Morgan said. "It's a soft tissue reconstruction so we just wanted to make sure all the tissues look healthy enough."