Joel Embiid Will Miss At Least A Week As A ‘Precaution’ Due To Knee Soreness

Joel Embiid hasn’t always had the best luck when it comes to injuries, and as a result, the Philadelphia 76ers are taking his latest knock rather seriously. The team released a statement on Wednesday afternoon regarding the health of their All-Star center, saying he is dealing with soreness in his left knee.

In an attempt to make sure the injury — which an MRI revealed does not include any structural damage — isn’t exacerbated, Philadelphia will hold Embiid out for a week, at which point he’ll get the injury re-examined. In the statement, the Sixers announced that this is a precautionary measure, and also revealed that rotation wing Furkan Korkmaz tore the meniscus in his right knee prior to the All-Star break.

The Korkmaz news is obviously brutal for the second-year player, and while Philly seems pre-destined to always have at least one star player injured a month, the Embiid news appears to be nothing more than the franchise making sure he’ll be ok. Of course, it’s the Sixers and Embiid, so that examination in a week has the potential to be huge.

Amid all the bad injury news in the City of Brotherly Love this week, there was something a little more positive: 2018 first-round pick Zhaire Smith, who has not played this year due to foot surgery and an allergic reaction that caused him to lose weight, took a positive step towards making his debut.

It still remains to be seen whether Smith will be able to take the floor this season, and as we’ve seen over the years, the Sixers are always willing to be patient when it comes to getting their injured first-round picks onto the floor.