NEW YORK — DJ LeMahieu and the Yankees anxiously and nervously waited on Friday for results from the latest tests on his sore hip.

The verdict wasn’t great.

The 2020 Major League batting champ was diagnosed with a sports hernia that will require surgery, manager Aaron Boone revealed before Saturday’s Yankees-Tampa Bay Rays game at Yankee Stadium.

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There is a potential silver lining to this crisis popping up three days before the Yankees could be playing in the American League Wild Card Game:

LeMahieu isn’t done for the year and may be back in the Yankees’ lineup as soon as Sunday’s regular-season finale, regardless if the game has playoff implications or not.

“He’s about as tough as they come, so he’s able to manage and govern himself just about as well as anyone,” Boone said. “But he’s also honest and there’s certain times where he just can’t press through.”

LeMahieu has been dealing with hip discomfort for weeks, but kept playing through the issue until not feeling up to starting last Saturday’s game in Boston. He started the Yankees’ next four games, but left in the sixth inning Thursday in Toronto and then was out again for Friday night’s 2-1 loss to the Rays.

LeMahieu hopes to play again soon due to a cortisone shot that he received on Friday.

“Hopefully the cortisone injection is something that gives him a little more of a relief,” Boone said.

LeMahieu has had good days and bad days over the last few weeks.

“It’s something he’s obviously been able to manage and play well through,” Boone added. “There’s been other times … There was the day in Boston where it was just too limiting for him. Obviously, he had to come out the other night in Toronto. So there’s been days where it’s a little bit better and he can manage it.”

With LeMahieu possibly unable to play at a moment’s notice, the Yankees added infield help on Saturday by recalling shortstop Andrew Velazquez from Triple-A. Velazquez was put in the Yankees’ lineup at short for Saturday’s game with Gio Urshela sliding from short back to third base.

The Yankees’ reconfigured their infield in August to move Gleyber Torres from short to second due to a lot of defensive struggles. The changes included LeMahieu going from second to third base.

Velazquez, 27, was with the Yankees from Aug. 9 to Sept. 12, and the Bronx native who is nicknamed Squid quickly became a bit of a cult hero while hitting .234 in 26 games, 19 of them starts at shortstop.

“Obviously, Squid’s a very good shortstop,” Boone said. “Very athletic. But that said, I think Gio has done a really nice job for us at shortstop and we’ll continue to do that, especially when we get DJ back in there. But Squid brings an athletic skillset on both sides of the ball and obviously good speed and then moving Gio over to third where he’s so good.”

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Randy Miller may be reached at rmiller@njadvancemedia.com