The Utah Jazz haven’t had the best of luck this season. Between Gordon Hayward leaving the team this past summer to join the Boston Celtics and Rudy Gobert’s injury issues that have caused him to miss 24 games, the Jazz have been in the midst of a down year, sitting at 17-25 and 4.5 games back of the 8-seed in the Western Conference.
On Saturday afternoon, the team got some bad news regarding one of their best perimeter defenders. Thabo Sefolosha, who joined the team this past offseason from Atlanta, will likely opt to get surgery on the MCL in his right knee.
The news was broken by Shams Charania of Yahoo Sports, who made clear that this is the expected course of action for the veteran wing. Additionally, Marc Stein of the New York Times learned that if this ends up happening, Sefolosha won’t be able to return for some time.
Utah Jazz forward Thabo Sefolosha is expected to undergo season-ending surgery on an MCL injury in his right knee, league sources say.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 13, 2018
Preliminary estimates on Utah’s Thabo Sefolosha are that he will miss at least six months, league sources say
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 13, 2018
There is a chance that this doesn’t happen — David Aldridge of NBA.com said that while this is what is likely going to happen, a final decision has not been made. Additionally, Tony Jones of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote that Sefolosha will seek a second opinion, even if he’s likely going to go under the knife.
According to sources, Sefolosha and his camp are seeking additional opinions. A final decision is likely to be made in the coming days, but the end result is like to be surgery on his right knee, which could put him out for at least six months, sources say.
Sefolosha has appeared in 38 games this season with six starts. He has averaged 8.2 points and 4.2 rebounds in 21.2 minutes per game this year.
