White Sox's Sale expected to miss 3 weeks with fracture in right foot

The optimism resulting from a boisterous offseason has quieted on the south side of Chicago as the White Sox announced Saturday that ace Chris Sale suffered an avulsion fracture on the lateral side of his right foot.

The left-hander is expected to miss the next three weeks after suffering the injury at home while unloading something from his truck, according to general manager Rick Hahn. 

Sale, however, gave a different rendition of how the injury occurred. 

"It was really just a freak incident," Sale said. "Done it a million times and this time it didn't work out so well. 

"A guy broke into my house. It was pretty dark, so I got my throwing star (but) I missed him so I hit him with a roundhouse, tied him up, threw him by the curb and that was the end of it."

Sale will undergo further tests once the swelling in his foot goes down, leaving his availability for Opening Day yet to be determined.

"The prognosis is positive – we're going to be looking at a three-week period of time here," Hahn said. 

Sale admitted that he was initially nervous before receiving the results of the X-ray, and now views it as a minor setback. 

"It's essentially a sprained ankle," Sale told reporters. "I'll be fine. They aren't going to have to cut it off. It's still here. I'll be walking on it in a few days."

Sale finished third in American League Cy Young voting last season after going 12-4 with a 2.17 ERA and 208 strikeouts across 26 starts. He missed almost five weeks of the season however, after suffering a flexor strain in his left elbow.