Freeman confirms he's out until after break

ATLANTA -- After spending the past couple of weeks dealing with pain and frustration, Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman has conceded that he has no choice but to rest his injured right wrist until after the All-Star break.

Freeman has been sidelined since June 18 with a bone bruise and aggravated ligaments in his right wrist. Though it has been assumed for more than a week that he would be sidelined through the break, it is still too early to pinpoint exactly when he will be healthy enough to return to the Braves' lineup.

But Freeman is holding out hope that he will be healthy enough to begin a Minor League rehab assignment during the break and then return for the July 17 game against the Cubs.

"That's the best-case scenario," Freeman said. I can't really give a timetable, because I don't know how I'm going to react to all this treatment that I'm doing.

"They're still doing a lot of treatment for the inflammation of my ligaments and tendons. The bone bruise is healing, so we're focusing all of our attention on getting the inflammation out of the ligament area."

Freeman hopes to be cleared to begin some activities by the end of next week. But as of Thursday afternoon, he was still unable to bend his right wrist. Some of this limited flexibility is a byproduct of the Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injection he received on June 24. This injection -- prescribed to stimulate the growth of damaged tissue and bones -- often creates some discomfort for at least 10 days.

"I'm trying to avoid everything as much as I can," Freeman said. "I'm trying to rest [my wrist] and do all the treatments. Hopefully, [my return] is sooner rather than later."

Freeman started feeling some discomfort during the latter part of a June 13 win over the Mets. He played the remainder of that contest and remained in Atlanta's lineup for four more games before the pain became intolerable and forced him to end his Major League-high streak of 243 consecutive games played.

"I thought it was just wrist pain and it would go away," Freeman said. "I don't know if I hurt it more, but I didn't really help it out by playing."

Braves doctors recently told Freeman that he essentially aggravated the same right wrist injury that forced him to remain inactive for more than a month following the 2009 season.

"It's pretty painful when you play every day for a year and a half straight and then all the sudden you physically can't go out there and play," Freeman said. "I was pretty bummed for a while."