Kyrie Irving’s first season with the Boston Celtics came to an end before anyone with the organization would have preferred, with the All-Star guard undergoing a second surgery on his left knee. When that procedure was announced, word broke that it involved the process of removing two screws put in place back in 2015 and, on Thursday, Irving spoke to Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN about the recovery process and his expected timetable for return.
As part of that discussion, Irving noted that an infection in the knee could have been much worse if not for how early it was identified.
“I mean, you ask anybody with an infection, they will probably try to downplay it,” Irving indicated. “It’s a personal thing because your body is going through it. I was fighting an infection in a specific place in your body where you can’t necessarily reach with your hands. You got to go in there and kind of see what’s going on, and what happened for me was, the metal wiring and the screws that I had in there, the infection was on that, so I had to remove that and then be on antibiotics for about two months.
“It could have evolved to staph, but good thing we caught it early. I am glad that is done. That was a long, long f*cking two months.”
First and foremost, it is obviously a good thing that Irving avoided a more severe ailment but even the potential of a staph infection developing is a terrifying reality. As part of the discussion, Irving also revealed that he expects to be ready for training camp and, as such, the Celtics appear poised to enter the season at full strength. In the eyes of many, Boston is the favorite to reach the NBA Finals as the Eastern Conference representative but, without Irving, the team’s ceiling is considerably lower, so this is undoubtedly positive news for the organization.
Regardless, it can’t be overlooked just how perilous things could have been for Irving if the infection worsened and, if the only casualty was a portion of one season, that is a very positive overall outcome.
