UPDATE: Despite the earlier report, Zion Williamson was unable to practice on Thursday. That’s because he experienced soreness in his surgically-repaired foot and the New Orleans Pelicans opted to play things more conservatively with his return to action.
Zion Williamson is experiencing soreness in his foot and his return has been delayed.
Williamson did not practice today. The soreness has persisted. No re-imaging has been scheduled at this time.
Williamson will be dialed back before ramping back up next week.
— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) December 2, 2021
Williamson had been doing 4-on-4 full court work but started to experience the soreness – but no sharp pains.
Pels are dialing back his workload for now. Will go back to low-impact work and go up from there once again.
— Andrew Lopez (@_Andrew_Lopez) December 2, 2021
EARLIER: The New Orleans Pelicans are patiently awaiting Zion Williamson. The team has struggled out of the gate this season, going 6-18 after their standout forward needed foot surgery over the offseason that has prevented him from playing during this campaign, despite the fact that the team originally expected him to be able to appear in their season opener. There have been occasional updates regarding his progress as he tries to work his way back onto the court, and last week, the team announced that Williamson had been fully cleared to participate in full team activities.
Now, a new report indicates that Williamson is taking perhaps his biggest step yet to returning to action. Shams Charania of The Athletic appeared on The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday and revealed that Williamson is going through his first full practice with the team that same day.
"Zion Williamson is fully cleared for all basketball activities.. his first full practice with the New Orleans Pelicans is today" ~@ShamsCharania
🗣LET'S GOOOOO #PatMcAfeeShowLIVE pic.twitter.com/dpWyQOASH7
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) December 2, 2021
“Zion Williamson is fully cleared for all basketball activities,” Charania said. “He’ll have his first practice today with the Pelicans — his first full practice with the team, Zion Williamson, the expectation has been that it will be today.”
The Pelicans have the second-worst record in the Western Conference at this point in the season and sit 5.5 games back of the Denver Nuggets for the 10th seed, which would get them a berth in the play-in tournament. There is still no word about when basketball fans can expect to see Williamson play in a game.
