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Former Red Sox trainer: Ortiz was 'playing on stumps'

David Richard-USA TODAY Sports / Reuters

It turns out David Ortiz was playing out his MLB career in more pain than anyone imagined.

The now-retired slugger didn't hide the fact that his final seasons with the Boston Red Sox were plagued by injuries and pain in his legs and feet, but the extent of those aches was illuminated recently thanks to his former physical therapist, Dan Dyrek.

Dyrek, who's worked with former Beantown icon Larry Bird to relieve his bad back, revealed to WEEI's Rob Bradford that "Big Papi" began struggling with a whole array of issues - including scar tissue - in his lower extremities in 2012, which required extensive tests to simply diagnose.

"He was essentially playing on stumps," Dyrek said. "Instead of having this nice, flexible, foot, ankle, calf mechanism to act as a shock absorber, he was playing on stumps. And you can do that for only so long. He was in warrior mode trying to play through this. Once we diagnosed him and saw what was going on and started explaining things to him, there was actually a sense of relief because now he had an explanation of what he was in such excruciating pain."

Ortiz confirmed he was calling an end to his 20-year major-league career after the Red Sox were eliminated in the ALDS by the Cleveland Indians. Following Ortiz's retirement, Dyrek informed the Red Sox he was leaving the organization as well, according to Bradford.

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