The Washington Wizards announced on Friday that point guard John Wall will miss the first few weeks of the regular season due to a knee injury.
The team said that Wall, the No. 1 overall draft pick in 2010, had a stress injury to his left knee and that he is likely to miss up to 12 games when the season starts.
Team president Ernie Grunfeld labeled it "a bump in the road," according to the Associated Press.
The injury will not require surgery and the rehabilitation will take Wall about two months. If he doesn't have any setbacks, Wall can expect to lose about a month of the NBA season.
His knee was examined in New York on Thursday by orthopedic specialist Dr. David Altchek, and a new MRI revealed the injury, according to the article.
"Just something that happens when you work out very hard, that's all I can say," Wall said.
The team released an official statement, saying:
"My teammates and I are all excited to build on the improvement we made at the end of last season, and I know they will continue to make great progress while I get through this setback," said Wall. "I will work extremely hard to make sure I get back as soon as possible so I can re-join them and help our team continue to improve."
"We're all disappointed for John after how hard he worked this summer and how excited he was to begin training camp, but we feel fortunate that we caught the injury early and that he will be able to return with the vast majority of the season still in front of us," said (Wizards president Ernie) Grunfeld. "In the meantime, we're confident that the versatility and depth of our team will help us move forward and continue the positive momentum that we've seen over the past several months."
The Wizards are set to start training camp on Tuesday. Last year the team was one of the worst in the league, going 20-46 during the lockout shortened season.
"The good thing about this is that we caught it when we did. It's not going to be a best-case scenario, but we also have to look at this in a positive way. ... My expectations of what John can do this year, it being his third year, is not going to change. He's just going to start a little later," Wizards coach Randy Wittman said. "We were lucky that we came and saw it before there was any type of fracture or anything of that nature."
Wall was drafted as the first-overall pick in the 2012 draft out of the University of Kentucky. During his first season he averaged 16.4 points, 8.3 assists and 4.6 rebounds per game. He was runner up for the Rookie of the Year award.
In his sophomore season Wall led the team with 95 steals and played in all 66 games.
Wall is a dynamic player and is easily the most skilled on the Wizards. The injury will be a setback for his development in the league, but if he is fully healed the Wizards will only benefit by the time he returns.
The team will also be without center Nene, who is suffering from a left foot injury.
"We have a deep roster right now, and we have a lot of players at a lot of different positions," Grunfeld said. "We have players that can pick up the slack, and it's not going to be up to one player."
The Wizards will open the season on Oct. 30, visiting the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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