Injured left fielder Jacoby Ellsbury is expected to begin playing in rehab games early this week, including likely stops at Portland and Pawtucket starting Monday.

The current plan is for Ellsbury to head to Triple-A Pawtucket on Monday and Double-A Portland on Tuesday. The team wants to keep Ellsbury close to home, and Pawtucket heads on the road Tuesday, so the outfielder will head to Maine to play with his old Double-A team.

"Jacoby will go Monday, play in Pawtucket, and then he'll play in Portland the next day," manager Terry Francona said.

Ellsbury said he's ready to get his return started 'as soon as possible,' though he's not feeling any pressure to return before he's ready.

"It's not do or die or anything, but you know you want to play," he said.

Ellsbury cracked four ribs in a collision with third baseman Adrian Beltre in early April. He has not been able to fully exert himself without feeling a sharp pain in his chest - and the prolific basestealer is certainly not looking forward to the feeling of flinging himself into the ground stealing a base or diving for a fly ball.

"No. Not really. That will be fun," Ellsbury said sarcastically

Manager Terry Francona said that the team is aware that Ellsbury is not 100 percent, but it's come to the point where it's time to start the recovery in earnest.

"I think he still feels it, but I think he thinks he's ready. I think he feels confident that he's ready to take the next step," Francona said.

While low-level impacts may be painful, it's not expected that Ellsbury could aggravate this injury with anything but a full-scale direct collision, so he should be safe to play as long as he feels healthy enough.

"Unless he runs into the wall, I don't think he's at more risk than anybody else," Francona said.