Washington Nationals Injury Update: Victor Robles won’t need surgery on injured elbow...

Washington’s top prospect Victor Robles injured his right elbow on a diving play last week in Rochester, NY, and Nationals’ skipper Davey Martinez offered an update on the 20-year-old outfielder when Robles was in the nation’s capital last week to see the team’s doctors for an official diagnosis.

“He has a hyperextension of his right elbow, and he’s really, really swollen, so they’re going to reevaluate him on Monday, when the swelling goes down,” Martinez explained.

He also said that he’d seen the video of the incident, and it didn’t look good, noting he’d had a hard time watching the whole thing, so in that sense, the initial diagnosis could be seen as relatively good news.

“When you see the video it looks like — I thought he broke his elbow,” Martinez said, “... but until the swelling goes down, they really can’t tell I don’t think what’s really going on, but it is a hyperextension, so if you want to say that’s good news, he’ll be missed for sure, but hopefully it is good news.”

Before the start of tonight’s series opener with the New York Mets, Martinez was asked for another update.

“I know he’s still pretty swollen and pretty sore, but nothing,” Martinez said, but after the win over the New York Mets in the series opener in Citi Field, the Nationals’ manager said he had actually received more relatively good news.

“Yes, we did. He’s not needing surgery at this point,” Martinez reported.

“So what we thought was going to be a year -- it might not take that long, so the prognosis was good. He’s still going to have a long recovery, but it’s not going to be as long as we thought.”

So there was no tear in the elbow?

“There’s no tear,” Martinez confirmed. “He’s got good strength, so we’re hoping to get him back, maybe not for a couple months, but the good news is there’s no tear.”