ATLANTA -- Yoenis Cespedes insisted he was ready to return to the New York Mets' lineup on Thursday against the Atlanta Braves, but manager Terry Collins decided to give the outfielder's sprained left wrist a day to mend.

Cespedes departed Wednesday's game against the Kansas City Royals in the sixth inning with what was diagnosed as a sprained left wrist. Team doctors administered a cortisone injection at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan, and Cespedes traveled to Atlanta on Thursday.

Cespedes said the wrist had nagged him for about a week. He indicated he had a similar issue in 2013 that lasted two or three days.

"Right now I'm ready to play," Cespedes said through an interpreter. "The manager said he was going to give me a day off."

Alejandro De Aza instead started in center field on Thursday at Turner Field.

It generally is advisable to give a cortisone injection 48 hours to kick in before returning to game action. Cespedes should return to the lineup on Friday.

Cespedes is on track to start in the National League outfield in the July 12 All-Star Game in San Diego. He is hitting .383 (18-for-47) with three doubles, three homers and seven RBIs in his past 13 games. He has a .444 on-base percentage during that stretch.

"This is something that happened to me back in 2013," Cespedes said. "It's been bothering me for the past week or so. And, finally, yesterday I couldn't hold it anymore and I went to [trainer] Ray [Ramirez] to let him know what was going on."