TAMPA — Luis Severino believed this year was going to be different — his first fully healthy season since 2018.

Instead, less than a week before Opening Day, Severino was diagnosed with another “low-grade” lat strain that is expected to land him on the injured list to begin the season.

Severino said Sunday he will not throw until he is pain-free, which means an inexact timeline for when he might return to the Yankees rotation.

But he said even if he needs to miss three or four starts, he does not expect this to be as severe as the lat strain that cost him two months last season.

“I thought this was the year I was going to be — my first year the whole year when there are no injuries,” Severino said. “But something happened. Hopefully it’s better to happen now than happen in the middle or end of the season. Hopefully this is it and if I miss, even three or four starts, after that, if I can be good for the rest of the season, I’d be blessed.”

Severino was unhappy with the Yankees last season when they transferred him from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL to give him more time to build back from the lat strain.

When asked Sunday if he will take his rehab slower because of his lengthy injury history, Severino said it won’t strictly be his decision.

“You know how the Yankees are,” he said. “They’re always pretty cautious about this kind of stuff. So even if I wanted to rush it, they’re not going to let me do it. You know how the Yankees are. Of course, I’m going to be a little bit cautious, but I think the Yankees are going to be more cautious than me.”

Severino, who is playing this year on a $15 million team option, said he is feeling “a little better every day.

He was hopeful that the tightness — which is lower in his back than last year’s lat strain, he said — would subside “in a couple days.”

Still, he does not know why his lat has become an issue again for the third time in his career.

“Actually I was feeling great, even the day that I started [last Tuesday],” Severino said. “So I don’t know if I did something wrong in the game or what caused that to happen. Hopefully this goes away and we can start pitching again.”