LAKELAND, Fla. >> It’s been a rough week for Parker Meadows, to say the least.

“I was in a pretty rough spot for a couple of days,” he said. “But it’s part of it. This game, sometimes it’s going to try and break you. I’m not going to let it.”

The Tigers announced Saturday morning that Meadows, their everyday center fielder, had been diagnosed with inflammation around the nerve in his upper right arm. There is no firm timetable for his return but for right now, he hasn’t been ruled out for Opening Day.

“You just have to wait until the nerve wants to wake up,” Meadows said. “Which is very frustrating. But I’m going to stay positive throughout the whole process. Just have to wait. It could be tomorrow. It could be three weeks from now. You just don’t know. We have the best doctors and trainers in the world and I am going to put my trust in them.

“I’m excited to go in every day and attack it and get better.”

Meadows injured himself a week ago Saturday in the Tigers’ first Grapefruit League game. He ran down a double in the right-center field gap, spun and made a strong throw to second base. And he immediately felt pain in his biceps.

“Kind of a freak accident,” he said. “I felt it on the throw. I spun around and my arm kind of got away from me a little and I felt it right away. I thought something was really wrong.”

There was numbness in his upper arm. He couldn’t flex his biceps. He was sent to Dr. Raj Singh in Scottsdale, Arizona. After two hours in an MRI tube, the nerve issue was discovered.

“After the MRIs, it was like a weight was lifted off my shoulders,” Meadows said. “Just as far as finding a true answer.”

Already, he said, there’s been marked improvement. He said he was feeling less tingling in the arm. He’s able to move his arm around without the pain. It’s trending up.

“We feel like we’re on a really good path,” manager AJ Hinch. “We have the diagnosis and we now have a treatment plan. He’s not doing baseball activities right now but when that nerve starts firing again, he can return to play.

“We going to stay open-ended (in terms of Opening Day). My understanding is we’re just going to listen to his body and see when he can pick things up. Right now, we literally don’t know.”

With the Meadows news hitting the day after it was announced that super utility player Matt Vierling (rotator cuff strain) would start the season on the injured list, it’s been a bit of an early-camp gut punch for the Tigers.

Hinch was quick to point out, though, that it’s March 1. The sky isn’t falling.

“Our group is preparing and they’re fine,” Hinch said. “We’ve never thought of any doomsday scenarios. It sucks to have a couple guys get dinged up in spring training. But we’re not the only team and the games are going to go on.

“We need to prepare to be ready to play and we will.”

The injuries open up playing time and opportunity for other players. Wenceel Perez has already gotten more reps in center field. Shortstop Ryan Kreidler will get reps in center.

Utility man Zach McKinstry started in right field Saturday and expects to get a larger share of work in the outfield. Non-roster invitees Jahmai Jones, Bligh Madris and Andrew Navigato are also getting extra work in the corner outfield spots.

One thing that isn’t expected to happen, at least not any time soon, is for Riley Greene to move back to center.

“We haven’t talked about that,” Hinch said. “I’d just like Riley to stay in the corner and do his thing and be the player he is. Everything is open-ended, as you would expect given we can move everybody around. But you won’t see Riley in center this week.”

If the season were to start today, it’s likely Perez would start in center and Kerry Carpenter in right. But as Hinch said, it’s too soon to make rash decisions.

“We leave three weeks from tomorrow and then we have two more (exhibition games in San Francisco) after that,” Hinch said. “There is no rush to judgment. Some of the moving around was going to happen regardless. But there are reps to be had in camp and decisions to be made a while from now when we will have more information.

“We’ve built a club that has a ton of versatility. It’s not a non-answer. It’s just we literally can do whatever based on what we feel is the best alignment.”

The tone will change, certainly, if Meadows’ nerve issue doesn’t respond to the treatment and rest. It changes if Vierling’s shoulder issue lingers deep into April. For now, though, the vibe of camp remains upbeat.

“It definitely sucks,” Greene said. “Those are two key guys that make this team who we are. But it’s not going to change anything. We’re still going to go out there and play our hearts out and do our best to win games.”