DETROIT — Initially, the Detroit Tigers did not think that Omar Infante’s ankle injury warranted a trip to the disabled list.

Then, they did not think his stay on the DL — once they decided to place him there — would last beyond the 15 days, expecting he’d be off without a problem on July 19, when he was eligible to return.

Now, it’s uncertain he’ll be back then.

“Not sure about that,” manager Jim Leyland said Sunday, although he wouldn’t call it a setback in his recovery. “No, not really setback, just not progressing as much as we’d hoped. I don’t really know the answer for that.”

The Tigers were hoping that Infante could head to Florida during the All-Star break, but that may not work out as planned.

“As soon as he’s ready, he’s going to Orlando, because he’s supposed to play for Lakeland, as soon as he can. But I don’t know when that’s going to happen. He’ll be down there, because he’s supposed to get treatment all through the break,” Leyland said. “He was probably going to DH for Lakeland a couple of games this week, but I don’t know if that’s going to work out or not.”

Infante was hurt on July 3, when Toronto’s Colby Rasmus overslid the bag at second base, trying to break up a potential double play.

When the Tigers announced Infante was going on the DL on Tuesday, it was couched as a formality, just a way to get an extra infielder on the roster to cover their bases. It also allowed the Tigers to easily give Infante as much rest as he needed.

“He’ll be ready to go. It’s just still lingering, pretty sore. It’s not going to be ready for at least three days. We only got six more so why not get it all the way right?” Leyland said at the time. “You can’t try to keep playing with just one (reserve) infielder, that being (Don) Kelly. We just decided that was the smart thing to do.”

Now, it looks even smarter, the longer it lingers.