Terry Collins’ ‘worst nightmare’ is watching diminished David Wright

5:47 PM ET

NEW YORK — David Wright is Gen X’s Tom Seaver or Mike Piazza. He is Queens’ answer to Derek Jeter. So it pains New York Mets manager Terry Collins to watch Wright struggle while playing through chronic spinal stenosis in his lower back, and now be sidelined by a herniated disk in his neck.

“This guy has been a special player in baseball,” Collins said Tuesday afternoon. “Certainly being the captain and the face of this organization, a manager’s worst nightmare is to see a star start to fade. I think David’s got a lot of baseball left in him because of the way he prepares and the way he gets himself ready. But it’s hard to watch what he’s going through … as good as he was. I’ll tell you: There’s a lot of guys in this room that would not do what he does every day just to get ready to go play a baseball game.

“He’s still special. He’s still a great player. We just hope this neck thing goes away in a few days and he’s back in our lineup.”

Mets officials are giving Wright every opportunity to get past his neck issue without landing on the disabled list. Wright is unavailable for a fourth straight game Tuesday night as the Mets host the Chicago White Sox. He also will not be available Wednesday because the anti-inflammatory injection he just received requires 48 hours to take effect. Wright previously tried oral medication, but that did not sufficiently reduce the pain and allow for the neck mobility in order to return to the …

continue reading in source espn.go.com