Ken Gurnick, the beat writer for Dodgers.com shared with the fans that second baseman Mark Ellis underwent a fasciotomy on Monday, a procedure that involves an incision into the membrane that surrounds the muscle, allowing the release of blood and fluid buildup.

Ellis was injured on Friday night as the Cardinals’ Tyler Greene literally took him out with his slide. He was forced to undergo emergency surgery on Saturday to calm the pressure from the trauma. He remains in the hospital, and should be released today.

In layman’s terms his leg was drained, alleviating the swelling.

Doctors haven’t discussed whether other parts of the leg might be injured. The leg was just a few hours away from having to be amputated; but luckily did not receive that fate after Ellis underwent the procedure on Saturday. The current time-table for his return is six weeks.

Prior to the injury, Ellis was hitting .273/.373/.364 with two home runs and nine RBIs. His 27 runs scored were nearly half of the 55 he produced all of last season in 95 more games, coming out of the two-spot where he set the table up for sluggers Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier.

His loss has prompted Elian Herrera to spruce up his audition in hopes that he can take hold of the position, beating out Justin Sellers and Aaron Miles, who should be back with the club soon enough. The Dodgers could even take the route of trading for a veteran player to fill the role.

May all be well with Ellis as both a player and person. I wish him a speedy recovery, hoping that the projected six weeks is accurate enough.