Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost is now says that his injuries from a recent fall were worse than previously reported, to the point that he almost died on the operating table after his accident.
Yost told fans that he will be in a wheelchair for the next two months and that he hopes he will be back on his feet by spring training next year, according to USA Today.
The 63-year-old Royals boss fell from a tree stand while deer hunting last week and early reports said he broke a hip in the fall. However, Yost didn’t just break a hip in the fall, he also suffered bleeding that got a bit out of control.
Yost is now saying that the injuries were very bad and could have been life threatening if he didn’t have a cell phone with him to call for help.
“There’s no doubt I would have bled out if I didn’t have my cellphone with me,” MLB.com reported via Twitter. “There was nobody that was coming. Nobody would have found me. I would have been dead by nightfall.”
He also confided that things were touch-and-go on the operating table.
“The trauma surgeon said, ‘Man, Ned, I was really scared about you. We’ve seen these things before – this is a 25-30 percent mortality rate,'” Yost said. “You were crashing on the table. We couldn’t get the bleeding stopped. I thought we were going to lose you.'”
Yost has managed the Royals for eight seasons leading the team to two American League pennants and a World Series win in 2015.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.