Andrew Bynum suffers a setback in his recovery process – NBA Update
When the Philadelphia 76ers acquired All-Star centre Andrew Bynum is a four team trade with the Los Angeles Lakers this summer, it was expected to mark the start of a new era in the franchise.
However, nearly two months on, the big man is yet to play a game for Philly due to a bone bruising in the right knee. In fact, he is nowhere close to making a return, and to make the matters worse for the team, Bynum recently revealed
that he has suffered bruising on the other knee as well;
"I had a little bit of a setback," Bynum said. "Just working through some issues with the right knee, I kind of have a mirror thing going on with the left knee. I don't know what's going on. The doctors are saying it's a weakened
cartilage state, so we kind of wait, I guess. We can't do anything. I just have to wait for the cartilage to get strong."
"It's the same exact spot (as the right knee) with the cartilage," Bynum said. "Just doing routine things and it started swelling up. No blunt-force injury or anything like that. It's the same timetable still."
Philadelphia have re-scheduled Bynum’s return three times so far, and contrary to Bynum’s belief, it now seems that the latest target date of Dec.10 will also have to be extended. The knees might recover till that time but the
centre will have to undergo nearly three to four weeks of conditioning in order to regain complete game fitness.
This means that Bynum will be returning somewhere around the mid January mark and the Phillies would have played nearly half of their games by then. They have been doing OK in his absence so far, and are 5-4 after tonight’s win
against the Utah Jazz. The vulnerability however exists and was exposed recently, when the Phillies conceded two straight games against the Milwaukee Bucks and the Detroit Pistons.
Bynum’s return can go a long way in shoring up that hole, especially when there is no one else on the roster who can give double-double figures day in and day out.
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