Bonds has surgery on knee again

SAN FRANCISCO -- Barry Bonds pushed his surgically repaired right knee so hard that the San Francisco Giants became concerned he might be doing too much. Yet, after 19 major league seasons, the team trusted Bonds knows his body best.

But on Thursday, Bonds underwent a second operation on the knee -- a setback that makes it unlikely the slugger will be ready for opening day.

While the Giants offered no timetable for Bonds' return, it took the seven-time NL MVP more time than expected to recover from the original surgery on the knee on Jan. 31.

"This is certainly a setback, and a significant one," general manager Brian Sabean said. "Obviously, we didn't know we were going to go down this path. Barry did what he felt he could tolerate on any given day. I'm glad this happened now instead of three days before the season."

Trainer Stan Conte said he could not rule out the possibility of Bonds being ready for the opener on April 5 against the Dodgers, but said it is "not an unreasonable thing" to assume he'll be sidelined past that date.

"It would be pretty incredible, but I've learned with Barry I never say he can't do something," Conte said from spring training at Scottsdale Stadium in Arizona.

The Giants said in a statement that Bonds had arthroscopic surgery to repair tears in the knee, similar to his earlier operation. Both procedures were performed in the Bay Area by Art Ting.

Bonds, 40, has "experienced periods of swelling in his knee following an incident when he accidentally hit his knee on a table at SBC Park Feb. 4," the Giants said in a release.