Derrick Rose’s Ankle Sprain Is Minor, But It Still Bears Monitoring

Derrick Rose
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The prospect of chronic knee pain always looms for Derrick Rose, and he’s likely to suffer from blurred vision as the result of a fractured orbital well into the new year. The last thing the Chicago Bulls star needs to be concerned with, basically, is an additional health issue as he tries to rebound from a disappointing start to 2015-16. But his body is refusing to cooperate yet again.

Fred Hoiberg says Rose is “extremely doubtful” for Wednesday’s game against the Phoenix Suns after spraining his left ankle in Chicago’s win over the Indiana Pacers on Monday night.

Video of this latest setback is below. Watch the former MVP’s left ankle turn outward as he drives baseline on Pacers guard Monta Ellis.

Ankle sprains, as Rose knows all too well, can be tricky. He missed multiple games last November to rest his balky ankles after tweaking both of them early in the season, a development that led to his incendiary quote about resting with his post-playing future in mind as opposed to basketball.

And in general, it certainly bears mentioning that the disparate severity of ankle sprains drastically differs from most other common injuries. Minnesota Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio, for instance, missed 60 games in 2014-15 after hurting his ankle in mid-November.

In a vacuum, there’s no reason to believe that Rose’s sprain is of a serious nature. He told K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune immediately following Monday’s game that he’s “all right,” and all subsequent developments suggest he’ll be back on the floor soon enough despite sitting out of the Bulls’ matchup with Phoenix.

But not all injuries are created equal. For most players, a seemingly innocuous sprain would barely be of note. Rose, though, has as checkered an injury history as any player in basketball. The wear and tear on his body isn’t just gleaned from years of playing basketball at the highest level, but also going under the knife on several separate occasions. He’s fragile.

Needless to say, we hope this injury isn’t a harbinger of things to come. Until Rose is back on the floor for an extended period, though, it warrants extra attention.

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