Jeter to have surgery, 4 to 5 months for recovery

DETROIT — Derek Jeter will have surgery on his broken left ankle, and the New York Yankees say the star shortstop is expected to need four to five months to completely recover.

The Yankees said Wednesday that Jeter will be operated on Saturday by Dr. Robert Anderson in Charlotte, N.C. The timetable the team announced means Jeter likely would be ready to return to baseball sometime between the start of spring training in mid-February and late spring training in mid-March.

Jeter, the Yankees’ 38-year-old captain, broke his ankle Saturday in the 12th inning of the AL championship series opener against Detroit while trying to field a ground ball.

The Yankees did not say whether there was any ligament damage.

New York trailed the Tigers 3-0 in the series heading into Wednesday night’s game. Jeter is the latest of the team’s longtime stars to go down with an injury. Mariano Rivera was lost for the season in May when he hurt his knee during batting practice.

This is the first time since 1981 the Yankees are playing in the postseason without both Jeter and Rivera.

Jeter had scans Sunday, which confirmed the fracture. He has not accompanied the Yankees in Detroit. His recovery was initially expected to take three months, but that timetable is now longer.

This wasn’t the first time Jeter had recent trouble with his left leg. Manager Joe Girardi pulled him from a game at Boston on Sept. 12 because of what Jeter said was a sprained ankle. Jeter was a designated hitter for the next four games.

Jeter fouled a ball off his left foot in Game 3 of the division series, again was taken out early, and was at DH the next day before returning to shortstop.