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By JANIE McCAULEY, AP Sports Writer

BEIJING (AP)—Jayson Nix still has a bunch of stitches above his left eye and under the skin, too. It’s bruised purple and yellow, still swollen and his vision is still a bit hazy.

Yet the U.S. baseball team’s second baseman said Monday he hopes to return to Olympic action, three days after fouling a ball off his eye in the 11th inning of a 5-4 loss to defending champion Cuba.

“I feel pretty normal,” Nix told The Associated Press in his first interview since the injury. “My vision’s still a little blurry but otherwise I feel really good. Any time you get something up there around your eyes, that’s career-threatening. That’s probably the scariest injury I’ve ever had. It was pretty wild.”

He needed microsurgery to repair about a 2-inch wound above the eye that bled heavily and immediately puffed up his eye. After the game, emotional U.S. manager Davey Johnson questioned whether Cuban pitcher Pedro Lazo had thrown at Nix’s head on purpose. The Cubans insisted that wasn’t the case and Johnson has since softened his stance.

Nix, leading off the bottom of the 11th inning for the Americans, had squared to bunt on the play. Plunking him would have put the go-ahead run on first and loaded the bases because of the way international baseball’s new extra-innings rule calls for runners to automatically be placed at first and second starting in the 11th.

“I don’t think that they would want to hit me on purpose. It wouldn’t benefit them to hit me,” said Nix, who turns 26 on Aug. 26. “I don’t think he was trying to hit me. I think it might have been a little bit of a dirty play. They might have been trying to come up and in.”

Initially, the U.S. team said he would be lost for the remainder of the Beijing Games, but Nix has recovered so quickly he could be back. That also will be welcome news to the Colorado Rockies, who are certainly counting on him come September.

U.S. baseball officials have been in touch with the Rockies, Nix said. He has played 22 games in the majors for Colorado this year.

Johnson isn’t ruling out getting Nix back.

“He looks all right,” Johnson said. “I want him to say (he’s ready to go). Maybe. I’d prefer if he didn’t have the blurred vision.”

The team has night games Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, a scheduled day off Thursday and then the semifinals Saturday if it advances as one of the top-four clubs—so there is some time.

Nix had 20-20 vision during an eye exam Sunday but he still has some blurriness.

“If the doctors say he can go, he says he can go and Davey says he can go, he can go,” said Paul Seiler, USA Baseball’s executive director. “Anything else would be premature. Time will tell, but he’s not a guy you write off.”

Nix stood behind the cage during batting practice before the Americans’ game against China on Monday talking to teammates and planned to play catch and ride a stationary bike Tuesday if he felt well enough.

“It’s not out of the possibility I could play,” Nix said. “I’m just waiting for my vision to be completely perfect, and I’m really close right now. We’ll see. I’m enthused at how I’ve responded.”

Nix recalls the entire play and being transported by ambulance to two different hospitals for examination. His family was watching back home in Texas, so he immediately called his father, Laynce.

Nix thought his eye was swollen shut when in fact it was open but he just couldn’t see out of it. For the first two days he stayed in bed with his eyes closed most of the time, blood still in the eye.

“It was scary. For a long time I couldn’t see anything out of my left eye,” he said. “We’re going to see Chinese doctors and I don’t know what they’re saying, so I don’t know how serious it is. I had no idea how serious it was or whether I’d get my vision back.”

Come Sunday, Nix got out and increased his activity—walking across the street to the cafeteria, then attending the U.S.-Netherlands softball game to root for some American friends.

Seiler visited Nix on Sunday to show his support.

“The guy was MVP of the World Cup last year,” Seiler said. “We really wanted him on this team because of his makeup, his leadership, his ability. He’s a big league second baseman. Nothing would surprise me about him.”