Pains.

(More gory version here--Don't say I didn't warn you.)

Poor Julio. He was having a really nice spring. He was hitting, showing a little power, not bobbling the ball and he was having success with throwing. And now he's got the setback of a torn meniscus.

The knee is the meeting of the femur and the tibia, with the patella acting as bodyguard. If you look at the distal end of the femur, it has a cleft appearance with two large bumps and a valley in between. The proximal surface of the tibia, on the other hand, is relatively flat. The menisci are two semi-circles of cartilage that are attached to the tibia and act as a barrier between the two bones. They sort of mimic the shape of the femur as each meniscus cups around one of the femur's bumps.

The knee is a hinge joint and while it does have a tiny bit of give, it's meant to open and close--and that's it. There isn't a lot of room for error in a knee. If you twist it, it's likely to cause damage to the meniscus in the form of a tear. Problems arise when the bits of cartilage slip into the space and block the knee from functioning.

His recovery from arthroscopy would depend on the severity of the tear and in which direction the cartilage was torn but the best case scenario would be around a month.