Ike's surgery seems inevitable

PHOENIX -- When the highlight of your day is walking uphill on a treadmill for 20 minutes, patience tends to be in short supply, and the needle is on empty for Ike Davis.

The Mets' first baseman, who lives in the Phoenix area, visited Chase Field before Friday night's 4-3 loss to the Diamondbacks and said the cutoff point for a surgery decision is Labor Day. What type of surgery he might need, however, remains up in the air.

The most extreme surgery for Davis would be microfracture, but that's more of a last resort. There remains the possibility that Davis' left ankle issues -- the bone bruise and cartilage damage -- can be solved with a less invasive arthroscopic procedure.

"They would have to go in and see by scoping it," Davis said. "They might not do the microfracture. It might just be that I have a flap of cartilage or something in there they can fix without doing it.

"I'd rather not have surgery. I would like to avoid it. But the waiting and rehabbing just to have surgery, it would be nice to just get it done if I have to get it done. The waiting game is kind of getting old."

On Tuesday, Davis was examined by Dr. Robert Anderson, an ankle specialist based in Charlotte, N.C., and the consensus was to rest through the end of this month. But nothing has worked, and Davis is not convinced that these next few weeks are going to help much.

"I'd like to just start getting better some way," he said. "I've just been in limbo so long, I'm just looking forward to an answer. But they don't have an answer until they go in there and they find out what's really going on in the joint."

In addition to the treadmill, he's done some leg exercises on a slideboard, which allows him to put very little weight on the ankle. When asked if he has been able to stay in shape, Davis shrugged. "I have a good metabolism," he said. "But obviously I'm not as strong or as in shape as I was during the season. I can get that back in the offseason. As soon as I get healthy and I'm able to train again, I'll be right back to where I was."

Sort of. Davis was on the verge of a breakthrough year before his May 10 collision with David Wright at Coors Field. He was batting .302 with seven home runs and 25 RBIs in 36 games. Little did anyone know that would be his entire output for the 2011 season.

"It does go to show you that something that looked minor can certainly be very big," Terry Collins said. "The replay looks like he really twisted his ankle. But you don't realize the force when he turned it, all the damage it caused. Everybody is shocked by it."

Now that he's facing the likelihood of surgery, Davis must come to grips with the fact that at age 24, there could be a significant impact on how he goes about his job.

"It's probably never going to feel the same, they said, but hopefully it will be better," he said. "Once you have surgery, you're never going to be 100 percent again, or the way it used to be, so there's always going to be that. Once they cut you open, you kind of have different things that happen after that."

As much as Davis wants a resolution to this ankle saga, the uncertainty might not end on the operating table. There will be a long rehab, and getting back to game speed is never a quick process.

"It's going to take some time," Collins said. "You don't sit out for a whole year and jump right back into it."