ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Rick Ankiel strolled into the team’s clubhouse a little more than an hour before first pitch and said the scare of last night’s crash into the center-field wall didn’t last as long as the aches and soreness in his neck and back.

“I thought this might be it,” Ankiel said of his first thought after ramming headlong in to the wall while making a catch in the eighth inning. “Honestly, I thought this might be it.”

Ankiel said his neck and lower back remained sore and “tight” even nearly 24 hours after the crash. He said he remembered the entire event, and he joked that he even watched the replay of it more than 30 times on television. (”Yep,” Ankiel said. “Looked like I remember it.”) He described the initial sensation from the shock of the crash as “someone stabbing me in the back.” Ankiel said team doctors expressed no concern about a possible concussion and that the focus of his exam Tuesday night at the ballpark was going to be his right shoulder.

Ankiel had an MRI taken of the right shoulder to see if any damage was done to the joint during the crash. Before the first pitch of Tuesday’s game the team announced there there was deep bruising of the shoulder but the MRI revealed no structural damage.

The center fielder will be given at least a day before the Cardinals determine his availability. No roster move is expected until the Cardinals have a better sense of the extent of his injury.

He had no trouble doing an everyday task like changing his shirt.

“I was relieved,” Ankiel said of learning there was no fracture in his head, neck and back. “I’m happy to be walking today. Anything from here is a plus.”

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