BAD SETBACK: Tigers suffers another injury as key player is to be out of the season.

CHICAGO — Detroit Tigers outfielder Riley Greene returned Thursday to Guaranteed Rate Field, the site of his last regular season game on Sept. 1, 2023.

That night, while playing left field, he banged his right elbow on the turf while diving for a ball and eventually departed the game.

The severity of the injury was shrouded in mystery over the next three weeks before it was ultimately revealed that Greene would undergo Tommy John surgery.

“I was very surprised when I heard the news,” Greene said last year. “I didn’t think you could do this making a diving catch, because I’ve made a lot of them.”

Well, Greene made another diving catch on Thursday in the Tigers’ Opening Day win against the White Sox.

The verdict? He’s OK.

“I had to face my fear,” Greene said with sarcastic profundity. “What better place than here?”

Tommy John surgeries are the worst possible news for pitchers. But Greene, who bats and throws left-handed, was ready to play by the start of spring training — just as he had promised last September.

His diving catch on a Kevin Pillar liner in the fifth inning Thursday showed he’s not playing cautiously, either.

“I was glad that he was low to the ground,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch. “He did a good job of getting to a couple of balls. I think the balls (he caught) on his feet were probably more impressive than the dive: The running catch to the line, the running catch to the gap. He got through the game in good fashion.”