Rickard on thumb injury: "You never wish this upon anybody"

Orioles outfielder Joey Rickard sat at his locker this afternoon with a splint on his right thumb, which he's expected to wear for the next three weeks. He confirmed that he suffered a "high grade tear" of a ligament that won't require surgery. He also expressed surprised at the severity of the injury.

The ligament isn't completely torn and Rickard hopes to leave the disabled list in September.

"I really didn't know what it was," he said. "I was just going by look and woke up the next morning and it was pretty swollen, so we went and took a look at it and found the results."

Rickard sustained the injury on Wednesday after slamming into the right field wall at Yankee Stadium while chasing Brett Gardner's triple in the bottom of the first inning. He stayed in the game, singled, and woke up the next morning unable to clench his hand into a fist.

"It was hurting me a couple innings later, but nothing too crazy," he said. "I think maybe adrenaline or something was still in effect. But that next morning was when it really hit me that we had to get it looked at.

"It's part of it. You never wish this upon anybody, but it is what it is and hopefully I'll be back there soon rather than later and help out."

Manager Buck Showalter said Rickard will be out four to six weeks.

"That was the rough estimate about when this thing would be fully healed," Rickard said. "They said more or less depending on how much you treat it and let it heal."

Rickard vows to return "as soon as possible."

"My goal is to be whatever they told me by whenever I can, so I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that happens," he said.

"They did say there was no surgery required. It's the ligaments and really no rehab. I've just got to wear this brace.

"It was a tear in the ligament. It was a high grade tear, but it wasn't completely, so we lucked out on that one."