Greg Bird’s distressing injury history must ring alarm bells

LAKE BUENA VI🍎STA, Fla. — Among Greg Bird’s many attributes that continue to tantalize the Yankees, speed is absolutely not one of them.

On Saturday, however, the firsℱt baseman’s teammates found themselves remarking, lamentably, over just how expediently Bird departed Champion Stadium with an ailing right foot, his return to active play unknown.

“I came in, and he was already gone,” Tyler Wade sai🌃d.

“He was kind⛦ of out before I knew what was going on,” Aaron Hicks said. “It was 🃏quick.”

It was quick, and consequently, Bird’s desire to prove himself as a reliable Baby Bombe✤r couldn’t be going more slowly. As tantalizing as his skill set and personality can be, his inability to consistently stay on the field must be equally🍒 upsetting for the Yankees.

The Yankees announced Saturday evening that Bird, who left the Yankees’ split-squad game here after feeling pain or tightness in his right foot or ankle during batting practice, had “right foot inflammati𝓡on,” as per an MRI exam and CT scan taken on him in Tampa. Sounds inconclusive, right? That’s why the Yankees won’t render a verdict until Bird sees foot specialist Dr. Martin O’Malley in New York on Monday.

Brian Cashman told reporters in Tampa, “I’m worried about it,” and the day’s test results diꦚdn’t alleviate that worry, the Yankees’ general manager told The Post’s George A. King III.

To think, the early commotion here centered around Luis Severino’s inability to find the ballpark on Disney World’s sprawling complex amid weekend tra♎ffic. That turned out to be nothing more than a funny story, as Severino arrived in time to pitch well against the Braves in preparation for his Opening Day start Thursday. Meanwhile, Bird, who hid any concerns he held by acting like his usual jovial self prior to batting practice, was experiencing a painful BP as Yankees officials worked to get Severino where he needed to be.

The Yankees need Bird to reach the potential he displayed all the way back in 2015, and of which he offered flashes late last season, in order to be as good as they can be. Their roster depth means that Tyler Austin can plug the hole temporarily — “I’m ready for whatever the situation is,🃏” he said Saturday — or that Neil Walker can slide over to first base while Tyler Wade mans second base, or perhaps that Miguel Andujar can quickly transition across the diamond. None of those solutions carry the high ceiling of what Bird can be.

“He’s a big part of our team,” Hicks said. “Really good ⛦offensively and defensively. He brings a lot to our ball club. Hopefully he’s just sore or something like that and we’re able to get🎀 him back really fast. We’re all hoping for the best.”

With Bird, you have no choice but to anticipate the worst. Since he got his first big-league opportunity thanks to Mark Teixeira’s injury (ironic, eh?) in ’15, slashing .261/.343/.529 with 1𒅌1 homers in 46 games, he has totaled just 48 regular-season games, all of them last year before and after his surgery on this same right foot. He missed all of 2016 recovering from right shoulder surgery. His strong postseason last year, during which ❀he slashed .246/.426/.512 in 13 games and delivered that memorable American League Division Series Game 3 homer off former teammate Andrew Miller of the Indians, encouraged the Yankees once more that Bird could place his injury-plagued past behind him and be something special.

When Bird came to bench coach Josh Bard (managing the split-squad team here) and reported the problem, which the 25-year-🅠old apparently first felt after playing nine innings on Friday, “We just thought with his past history, let’s get a picture, do what we need to do,” Bard said.

The picture was foggy, it turns out, and it couldn’t be clearer that Bird’s escape from that past history is nowhere near comp🧸letion.