The good news is that the epidural that soon-to-be 35-year-old veteran Dodgers outfielder Andre Ethier received last week to relieve the pain in his lower back worked immediately. The bad news – or at least uncertain news – is that the extent of his “mild disk herniation” and subsequent treatment won’t be known until Friday afternoon or perhaps on Saturday morning after the Dodgers’ elder statesman meets with noted back specialist Dr. Robert Watkins.

“It’s Groundhog Day all over,” Ethier told reporters on Thursday morning in the Camelback Ranch clubhouse. “I’ve been stuck in spring training for 18 months now.”

In addition to X-rays and an MRI, Ethier also had a CT Scan on his ailing back, which he said he first noticed while running to first base on a single nearly three weeks ago.

“I just felt it two weeks ago from this past Monday [March 6] at the Rockies there,” Ethier said. “I just got out of the box and was running down to first and as I was getting to first, I just kind of really started tightening up, kind of locked up in my lower half. Kind of like in that lower half when and your butt kind of sticks out and you’re stuck in that position. That’s what it felt like, I was just kind of stuck with my butt sticking straight out.

“I couldn’t really walk well or impinge well and that’s when I came out of the game a couple innings afterwards and sat out for almost two weeks to see if we could rehab it from there,” added Ethier. “It got better, but not to the point where it was drastically improved.”

Dodgers veteran outfielder Andre Ethier describes his last 18 months as being like the 1993 cult movie Groundhog Day. (Photo courtesy of MLB.com)

As you can imagine, it’s tough to maintain a positive attitude when you’ve basically been out of action for over a year. But to his credit, Ethier has dealt with it rather well – in spite of the occasional ribbing he receives from his younger teammates.

“That’s probably what’s the tough thing to deal with right now,” Ethier said. “Because last year I felt the whole off-season … the whole year, that a lot of the season was stolen from me because of an injury like that. It just gets you and there’s nothing you can do.

“We’re not there, and until Dr. Watkins puts eyes on it, I don’t know, I don’t know.”

The one thing that Roberts and everyone else is absolutely in agreement on is that the chances of the veteran outfielder making the Opening Day roster are pretty much non-existent.

“The likelihood of Opening Day, it’s going to be tough for him,” Roberts said.

…just as the past 18 months have been for him.