The New York Yankees expect starting pitcher CC Sabathia to miss another six weeks while recovering from a degenerative knee condition, reports Anthony McCarron of the New York Daily News.

Sabathia, one of the Yankees’ top pitchers, has already missed over five weeks due to the knee issues, which have not only sidelined the lefty but sapped his strength. While the team initially speculated that his timetable for returning would be around four weeks, we’re now looking at something closer to 10 or 11 weeks.

With that said, Sabathia hopes to return even sooner:

“That’s what they’re saying, but I’ve been throwing the whole time and I feel pretty good,” Sabathia said. “Obviously we have to be cautious, not wanting to hurt my arm, but we’ll see. I feel pretty good, so hopefully we can skip some steps. A few more steps and hopefully no setbacks, just build up and get into a game here pretty soon.”

Sabathia threw 25 pitches, all fastballs and curveballs, during a pitching session on Monday, his first time taking the mound since being sidelined. He’s scheduled to throw another session on Wednesday, with the goal of increasingly his pitch total while using his entire arsenal.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi sounded relatively optimistic as Sabathia’s recovery continues. “So far, so good,” Joe Girardi told McCarron. “He came out good (Monday) and you would expect him to continue to progress, but we’ll see.”

In eight starts this season, Sabathia has a 5.28 ERA with 48 strikeouts and 10 walks over 46 innings. After going 13 consecutive seasons with 180-plus innings, including seven straight of 200-plus, Sabathia won’t come close to reaching that threshold this season.