When last we checked in on star-crossed Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, it was reported he was likely to miss the entire upcoming NBA season with a setback in his foot injury. Now, according to Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News, the nature of his setback is more clear, and it’s perhaps as bad as it could get. Embiid has reportedly re-broken the navicular bone of his right foot.
Embiid’s first fracture of his navicular bone was discovered right before the 2014 NBA Draft, and it caused Embiid to slide from a presumed first overall pick to the Sixers at the third pick, who (in their tank-to-end-all-tanks) could afford to keep him out a full season to fully recover. Now the clock on Embiid making his NBA debut just got reset another year, at least. The first surgery implanted screws in Embiid’s foot to keep it stable. That clearly didn’t work, and Cooney reports that another surgery will happen “any day now.”
Philadelphia was never planning on contending this year, so Embiid wasn’t going to be counted on in that fashion anyway, and their pick of Jahlil Okafor in the most recent draft means that their depth at center will be fine for their purposes. But no one wanted this for Embiid, who will now have a serious uphill climb to have a real NBA career.
(Via Philly.com)
