There was a Mark Sanchez sighting Tuesday night, and it wasn’t in New York, New Jersey or California.
The Post learned last night that Sanchez was in Birmingham, Ala., to have his right knee examined by renowned orthopedist, Dr. James Andrews.
It’s believed Sanchez — who suffered a sprained posterior cruciate in his right knee in the Jets’ 19-13 win over the Bills on Dec. 3 in Toronto and missed a game — was seeing Andrews to have it checked out in case any surgery needs to be done.
It’s not known whether Sanchez will have any offseason surgery, though if he did it likely wouldn’t be anything major. Considering how well he played when he returned to the lineup, any potential surgery likely would be a minor procedure to clean up the knee.
Sanchez, in fact, performed at his best during the Jets’ playoff run and threw some of his best passes while on the move.
In the Jets locker room on Monday as the players cleaned out their lockers, Sanchez moved with no perceptive limp.
Sanchez hurt the knee diving forward on a scramble against the Bills. Despite the Jets having extra days to recover following the Buffalo game because it took place on a Thursday, Sanchez sat out and didn’t make the trip to Tampa for the team’s Dec. 13 game against the Buccaneers.
Outside of a three-interception game in the Jets’ 10-7 loss to the Falcons, Sanchez’s performance when he returned was one of improvement compared with before the injury.
Sanchez, on the advice of a former coach, came to the Jets wearing a brace on his left knee as a precaution. While at USC, he suffered a dislocated kneecap in practice before the 2008 season.
After he hurt the right knee against the Bills, he wore braces on both knees for a while in practice.
Before his injury against the Bills, Rex Ryan brought Yankees manager Joe Girardi to the Jets’ practice facility to help teach Sanchez how to slide. Sanchez had a propensity to dive forward while scrambling and Ryan wanted to curb that habit.
Sanchez’s knee injury occurred days after Girardi’s visit.
“I’m sorry to coach Girardi,” Sanchez said after the Bills game. “He spent all that time trying to help me. And I know Rex wants me to slide and everybody wants me to slide, but in the heat of the moment I was trying to get the first down. That’s just the way I play.”