Curt Schilling's time of return to the Fenway Park mound remains unclear. "I've had a boot on for the past couple of weeks, so my ankle isn't getting any stronger," Schilling said on WEEI's "Dennis and Callahan radio show on Monday, according to the Boston Herald. "It was weak when I hurt it to begin with. So I'm not going back out there until it's strong, if not stronger than it was. "How we can do that, and how quickly we can do that, is going to be the big question. There's some discomfort, but nothing like there was. I'm throwing with my short boot on as best I can to keep the arm as best I can so there's a lot less lag time between being ready [to come out of the boot] next week and getting out there and pitching." Schilling will be in the boot until at least Friday, for a total of 3 1/2 weeks, where as Wells, who suffered a sprained plantar fascia ligament in his right foot, was in a similar cast for just two weeks and then needed nine days to return to pitching condition. That would suggest that the earliest Schilling could return would be the very end of May or beginning of June. "I'm hoping that we're near being out of it, but there's a lot of work to be done once I get out of the boot," Schilling said on the radio. "You think about some of the basic concepts of what's happening, what's going to happen going forward."