Danilo Gallinari left Italy’s World Cup Qualifier game against Georgia in the fourth quarter on Saturday after pulling up with a left knee injury that many, including Italy’s coach, feared would be a significant one.
Gallinari suffered the injury trying to plant his left leg to go right and avoid a defender on a fast break, but bent his knee awkwardly and immediately let the ball go and grabbed at it. While the initial fear was that he’d suffered an ACL injury, the MRI on Sunday revealed he had torn his meniscus but had suffered no damage to any of his ligaments.
⚠️ Official medical report: meniscus lesion. I won't play #Eurobasket in my home town.
— DANILO GALLINARI (@gallinari8888) August 28, 2022
Danilo Gallinari has suffered a meniscus tear in his left knee, the Italian national team announces. No ACL or ligament damage, the team says, which is best case for the Celtics forward following the non-contact injury on Saturday. https://t.co/NG8mS7O6pB
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) August 28, 2022
While Gallinari is obviously disappointed to be out of World Cup qualifying and the upcoming EuroBasket tournament for Italy, this is, all things considered, about the best case scenario given how the injury looked. A meniscus tear is certainly not a minor injury, but the recovery time is typically shorter than an ACL, which would have very likely cost him the entire 2022-23 NBA season. The timetable for his recovery will be determined later, but the hope would be that he’s able to join the Celtics at some point in the regular season after signing with the reigning East champs this summer.
