Bonds immobilized on 24-hour I.V.

[sahyder1]

DENVER -- They are into Week 7 of life without Barry. And the San Francisco Giants still have no answer to the question that won't go away:

AP Photo/Ben Margot

Bonds has been advised to even stay off crutches at this time.

When is Barry Bonds coming back?

There is no answer because Bonds, according to a number of sources, is attached to an I.V. full of antibiotics 24 hours a day -- with no end to that ordeal in sight.

There is no answer because Bonds is no longer dealing with the aftermath of "just" a baseball injury or "just" a knee operation. He is dealing with a potentially serious post-operative infection that has him essentially immobilized for the foreseeable future.

So there is no timeline for Bonds' rehab, because right now, there is no rehab. Bonds' case is in the hands of Dr. Robert Armstrong, an infectious disease specialist. And that won't change until Dr. Armstrong is certain the infection is completely absent.

That could be a matter of days, but it also could be a matter of weeks. Infections to the knee are particularly precarious -- because of the risk of infection to the bone itself -- and it's believed that Bonds' medical team plans to be extra cautious before deciding to clear him to resume his rehab.

By then, however, Bonds might be so weakened by several weeks of nearly total immobility that his rehab almost certainly will be significantly longer than the normal four-to-six-week schedule that faces most patients following arthroscopic knee surgery.

At this point, it's believed Bonds is even being discouraged from hobbling around on crutches, as he did earlier this month in a visit to SBC Park, because that puts more pressure on his knee than doctors would prefer.

So when is Bonds coming back? It isn't even worth guessing, because there is literally no one who knows the answer.

Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

[Ananas]

Damn, I had no idea he was hurt. I thought he was just sitting out because of the questions he was getting from the press about steroid testing. Any chance this had anything to do with the juice?

[Guest Locutus of Borg]

Baseball Tonight said they're hearing conflicting reports that he's now off of the I.V. and others say he's on it still.