Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball is having serious knee issues, and the latest updates are more than just a little bit concerning.
Ball has not played since Jan. 14, and the timeline continues to get worse. What was originally called knee soreness was elevated to a “small meniscus tear” that would require “minor surgery” and keep him on the sidelines for “several” weeks. He had a similar procedure on the same knee in July 2018.
The estimated recovery this time was four to six weeks, and then upgraded to between six and eight weeks.
That was eight months ago. Now, earlier this week, the Bulls announced Ball would undergo “an arthroscopic debridement” of his left knee, and they will re-evaluate him in 4-to-6 weeks.
"This is something I've never dealt with. Even the doctors are surprised a little bit."
Lonzo Ball said he still can't run or jump and even has pain in his knee climbing the stairs pic.twitter.com/UfnkYuDRAj
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) September 27, 2022
Ball said he experiences pain climbing stairs, range of motion is an issue, he can’t play basketball, and he can’t jump. He said this is something that he has never dealt with before, and even the doctors are concerned.
This is especially concerning because as part of his injury rehabilitation, he began ramping up to running back in March. He paused running altogether by the end of the month, however, and he began experiencing discomfort once again during the ramp-up process in April.
Ball said that he is worried he may have tried to rush himself back for the playoffs, and he doesn’t want that to happen again.
Lonzo says he won't rush anything this time. He was trying to get back for the playoffs but with this being his third surgery, he's going to be as careful as possible
— Will Gottlieb (@wontgottlieb) September 27, 2022
Once he was shut down for the season, he was only working on maintenance strengthening before hitting another standstill. The following month, in May, fans learned there were “serious concerns” within the front office about his knee.
By the summer, the Bulls said Ball was not able to progress at the “speed they would like” during his injury recovery.
He will obviously miss training camp, and he will miss the beginning of the regular season as well. He said that missing the entirety of next season would be the “worst case scenario” but added that he isn’t going to rush anything in the rehabilitation process.
The updates only continue to get worse every time we learn something new about Ball’s injury recovery, and that’s such horrible news for the 24-year-old guard.
