A doctor explains Steph’s ankle injury, a possible return timeline originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
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The Warriors will be without Steph Curry for at least the next two games, both against the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday and Wednesday at Chase Center.
After that? It is unclear when the superstar point guard will return to the court.
The Warriors announced Curry on Monday sustained a left peroneal strain in his ankle in Sunday’s loss against the Los Angeles Clippers and will miss both games against New Orleans before being re-evaluated on Friday.
NBC Sports Bay Area recently spoke with Stanford Medicine orthopedic and sports medicine surgeon David E. Oji, who provided insight into Curry’s fibular injury, what it entails and how long the 36-year-old could be sidelined.
“From a simple, kind of mechanism that Steph basically had, there are a lot of structures that he could have injured,” Dr. Oji told NBC Sports Bay Area on Monday. “It’s not just the typical ankle sprain that we all think of when people roll their ankle. There are tendons on the outside called the peroneal tendons that allow you to move your foot to the outside position, called eversion.
“And you can actually strain those structures, or basically pull it. You might even get little tears along the tendons. In some cases, that tendon is attached to the bone. You can actually break the bone right from the base as well, but many things can happen from a simple sprained ankle.”
While the Warriors will reevaluate Curry on Friday, that doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll be available for Saturday’s game against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center. As Dr. Oji notes, the injury — depending on the severity — could sideline Curry for at least a full week.
“In my experience dealing with similar injuries … if they have a very simple, kind of strain to the tendon without specific tears, it could be as simple as one to two weeks of weight rehab and making sure they’re comfortable, the mechanics are back and where they are supposed to be and the force is 100 percent to bring them back to play,” Oji stated.
“If there is a small tear or a more serious injury noted on imaging, then that can take much longer to heal and that could take up to several weeks and months.”
Fortunately for Curry and the Warriors, it doesn’t appear that the injury is that severe. After the game, Warriors coach Steve Kerr provided an initial update on Curry, straight from the source.
“He’s fine,” Kerr told reporters after the game. “… He used the word ‘mild’ or ‘moderate’—he’s obviously sprained that ankle many times before. He doesn’t think it’s too bad. But obviously, it’s a concern.”
The Warriors, in their initial update on Monday, shared that Curry’s MRI showed no structural damage, which is certainly good news.
How long the injury sidelines him, however, remains to be seen.
