Did steroids play role in A-Rod's injury issues?

06:51 AM ET 12.04 | The speculation that steroids have played a role in Alex Rodriguez's continuing injury issues, including his most recent diagnosis of a torn labrum, bone impingement and a cyst in his left hip that could cost him the first half of the season, isn't going away. Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was asked at a press briefing Monday in Nashville whether he believes A-Rod's latest injury is related to steroid use. Rodriguez admitted in 2009 that he had used steroids from 2001-03 when he played for the Texas Rangers. "Do I wonder whether it is?" Cashman repeated when asked about the possibility of steroid use contributing to the second hip operation on the team's third baseman in four years. "It doesn't matter what I wonder. But the bottom line is it is definitely something that's occurred within our industry and it's happening in football, and thankfully there are doctors in a position to fix it. They can repair the labrum in the hip, which I didn't even know existed, and they can get people back to functional work, even the pro athletes." Cashman said he has "no idea" if the injury is related to steroids, a question that also arose in 2009 when Rodriguez needed what the Yankees described as a "similar but not identical' procedure performed by Dr. Marc Philippon in Vail, Colo., to repair his right hip.

New York Daily News