HOUSTON — When Aaron Hicks suffered a flexor tendon injury to his right elbow, he was told by a leading surgeon he needed Tommy John surgery.

In a very quiet Yankees clubhouse following a bitter, 6-4, season-ending loss to the Astros in Game 6 of the ALCS on Saturday night, Hicks revealed that Dr. Neal ElAttrache recommended the procedure that would have ended not only this season, but impacted next year.

Hicks opted to start throwing and the elbow felt good enough he returned from the injured list for the ALCS. Now, the switch-hitting center fielder believes he can avoid the knife.

“Don’t see myself having Tommy John. I was throwing the ball around pretty well,’’ said Hicks, whose last regular-season game was Aug. 3.

Giancarlo Stanton’s return to (relative) good health lasted just one game.

With the Yankees’ season on the line Saturday night in Game 6 of the ALCS, they went with a Stanton-less lineup for the fourth time in this series, starting Edwin Encarnacion, who struck out three times to go with a walk, at designated hitter.

Two injuries that limited Luis Severino to three regular season starts, with the first one not coming until Sept. 17, won’t force the Yankees’ former staff ace to change his winter workout program. After signing a four-year, $40 million deal, the 25-year-year-old right-hander was diagnosed with an inflamed right rotator cuff. While rehabbing that injury in Tampa, Severino suffered a strained lat.

Though the Yankees were perplexed with the reason for the lat injury, Severino said it won’t alter his offseason conditioning program.



“I feel like I worked out pretty good this offseason. And like I said before, … that kind of injury, you can do nothing about it to prevent [it],’’ Severino said. “Been eating more healthy, trying to do everything to be in shape, and trying to be healthy but it didn’t happen. I work out good, eat good, but stuff like that happens and you have to forget about that and keep going.’’

When the Yankees gave Severino that contract, they envisioned him to continue on the path that delivered a 14-6 record and 2.98 ERA in 2017 and a 19-8 ledger and 3.39 ERA in 2018. Instead, they got three starts from Severino, who was 1-1 with a 1.50 ERA in three starts this season.

Severino would have started had the Yankees forced a Game 7. He started Game 3 and gave up two runs and five hits in 4 ¹/₃ innings in a 4-1 loss.

Dellin Betances traveled with the Yankees after Friday night’s Game 5 win over the Astros at Yankee Stadium knowing his left Achilles’ tendon won’t need to be surgically repaired.

Betances is in a walking boot, but that is expected to be discarded in two weeks after a recent MRI exam showed progress.

Betances’ season consisted of two-thirds of an inning in which he fanned two on Sept. 15 in Toronto. Betances did a little jump after the second strikeout and was fine after the game. The next day the tear was discovered.

He was sidelined in spring training because of an impingement in the right shoulder and suffered a right lat strain in July while working back from the impingement.

Aaron Boone and his Astros counterpart A.J. Hinch didn’t reveal who their starters for Saturday’s Game 6 during Friday’s media session prior to Game 5. However, they did tell each other after the Yankees’ 4-1 victory at Yankee Stadium.