Doctor explains Steph’s ankle injury, possible return timeline originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
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The Warriors will be without Steph Curry at least for the next two games, both against the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday and Wednesday at Chase Center.
After that? It’s unclear when the superstar point guard will return to the court.
The Warriors on Monday announced Curry sustained a left peroneal strain in his ankle in Sunday’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers and will miss both games against New Orleans before being re-evaluated on Friday.
NBC Sports Bay Area recently spoke with Stanford Medicine orthopedic and sports medicine surgeon David E. Oji, who provided insight into Curry’s peroneal injury, what it entails and how long the 36-year-old could be sidelined.
“From a simple, kind of, mechanism that Steph essentially had, there’s many structures that he could injure,” Dr. Oji told NBC Sports Bay Area on Monday. “It’s not just the typical ankle sprain that we all think of when people roll the ankle. There are tendons on the outside called the peroneal tendons that kind of allow you to move your foot to the outward position, called eversion.
“And you can actually strain those structures, or essentially pull it. You could even get little tears along the tendons. In some cases, that tendon is attached to the bone. You can actually break the bone directly off of the base as well, but many things can occur from a simple ankle sprain.”
While the Warriors will re-evaluate Curry on Friday, that doesn’t necessarily mean he will be cleared and available for Saturday’s game against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. As Dr. Oji points out, the injury — depending on the severity — could sideline Curry for at least a full week.
“From my experience treating similar injuries .. if they have a very simple, kind of, strain to the tendon with no specific tears, it could be as simple as one-to-two weeks of heavy rehab and making sure they are comfortable, the mechanics are back and where they are supposed to be and the strength is 100 percent to get them back to play,” Oji stated.
“If there is a small tear or a more significant injury noted on imaging, then that can take a lot longer to heal and that could take up to several weeks and months.”
Fortunately for Curry and the Warriors, it doesn’t appear that the injury is that severe. After the game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr provided an initial update on Curry, straight from the source.
“He’s doing O.K.,” Kerr told reporters postgame. “… He used the word ‘mild’ or ‘moderate’—he’s obviously sprained that ankle many times before. He doesn’t think it’s too bad. But obviously, it’s a concern.”
The Warriors, in their initial update on Monday, shared that Curry’s MRI showed no structural damage, which certainly is good news.
How long the injury sidelines him, though, remains to be seen.
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