Konerko to take time in recovery from back strain

CHICAGO -- White Sox first baseman Paul Konerko said he felt his back get gradually worse as Tuesday's game against the Orioles went on, and he wasn't feeling much better a day after he was placed on the disabled list with a lower back strain.

"By the end of the game, it was not only painful, but not functional," Konerko said Thursday. "I couldn't even take the swings I wanted to take, couldn't even get through holding on with two hands -- that kind of stuff, where I knew the first night [back] would be a little bit of a battle just from not having played, but that night I knew no way this was going to improve until [Wednesday]. And even yesterday was like it was the first day after Kansas City [when he first felt back pain], and today, truthfully, might be a tick worse than yesterday."

Konerko missed the first six games of the homestand before trying to play Tuesday, when he went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts. Now, he says, he'll wait until he's 100 percent before returning to the lineup after the All-Star break.

"I was probably 95 percent going into that game on Tuesday night," Konerko said. "It felt like it was behind me. I'd taken eight days off and gotten it all calmed down. Didn't see that coming. Usually you go into a game a little bit left over from an injury or stuff that's bothering you, but you come out and play its way out of there over a day or two."

Konerko and reliever Jesse Crain were the ninth and 10th White Sox players placed on the disabled list this season, but Konerko downplayed that as a reason for Chicago's struggles.

"We haven't been that unlucky," he said. "We've had a couple injuries, but if you match us up against any team, I don't think we've been any more injured. We've had some guys nicked up here and there, and there was a little stretch early but -- [Gordon Beckham] went down for a while, [Dayan] Viciedo went down for a while and I'm down here a little -- I think if you look at any other team, you'd find the same situations. I don't look at it like that's been the biggest problem for us this year."