UPDATE: According to Yahoo! Sports, the previously reported injury to Joel Embiid is a stress fracture in his right foot. He is having surgery on Friday and his recovery period will become more clear once he’s had the operation.
As previously mentioned, Embiid will be unable to conduct additional workouts and will miss next week’s draft in New York.
Here’s more from Woj at Yahoo:
The stress fracture is in the navicular bone of the Kansas center’s right foot.
“Joel will be unable to participate in any additional workouts and will not attend the draft in New York,” Tellem said.
[…]
Embiid, the projected No. 1 overall pick, consulted with renowned orthopedist Dr. Richard Ferkel on the injury, which sources believe happened over a week ago. Along with a back injury that caused Embiid to miss the last six games during his one college season, it becomes increasingly unlikely that Embiid will still be Cleveland’s choice as the No. 1 overall pick.
On that last point, Wojnarowski added that the Cavs would now work out Dante Exum before next Thursday’s draft:
As Jeff Goodman reports, Joel Embiid suffered a foot injury. Cavs want to workout Dante Exum for No. 1 spot now too, sources tell Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) June 19, 2014
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(Yahoo)
PREVIOUSLY:
Conflicting reports surfacing from Cleveland last week regarding Joel Embiid’s health evaluation could become an afterthought after the latest on the 7-foot native of the Cameroon could confirm Embiid has suffered a right foot injury. While it is not yet known how the No. 1 hopeful in this year’s draft may have hurt his foot, his agent Arn Tellem confirmed to ESPN that his client did indeed suffer a foot injury.
Per ESPN:
He suffered a foot injury to his right foot, sometime over the last few days,” agent Arn Tellem told ESPN’s Andy Katz by phone Thursday. “He’s getting evaluations from various doctors and experts in the field. We’ll know more Friday.”
The injury was also confirmed by Embiid’s mentor Luc Mbah a Moute of the Minnesota Timberwolves who said that he, “Just heard he got hurt” while another anonymous source was less optimistic than Embiid’s agent, saying, “He may have broken it.”
The Kansas product was expected to participate in his next workout with the Milwaukee Bucks but will likely not be taking part in that, or any other workouts before the 2014 Draft, according to Tellem. If his foot is proven to be broken, expect Embiid to slip a few spots in the draft as GM’s across the league will be weary of another injury-prone big man.
(ESPN)
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