By all accounts, Derrick Rose has been progressing nicely in his recovery from a facial fracture he sustained on the opening day of training camp. Things were reportedly going so well that on Monday, Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said he expected Rose to return to practice as early as Thursday of this week. But just don’t expect to see him suited up and on the court any time soon. Via Ricky O’Donnell of Blog A Bull:
Derrick Rose is ‘most likely’ going to miss the entire preseason, according to what Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said after practice on Tuesday. Rose has been sidelined since catching an elbow in his face and suffering a left orbital fracture during the first practice of the year.
Hoiberg said that Rose still has swelling around his eye and is probably a week away from running. While Hoiberg did not rule Rose out of the regular season opener on Oct. 27 against the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Tribune’s K.C. Johnson tweeted that Rose’s presence in the opener is ‘in jeopardy’. Rose was originally slated to return two weeks after the injury.
So there you have it. Let the digital sighs and social media exasperation commence. It’s likely that the Bulls are simply being overly cautious here, so before you start drafting his obituary, it bears mentioning that several stars – namely Mike Conley and Russell Westbrook – suffered facial fractures last season yet were able to return to action relatively quickly with little-to-no long-term residual effects. But given Rose’s demoralizing injury history, that won’t stop the incessant rattling of death knells.
