Chris Douglas-Roberts could return to practice for Milwaukee Bucks in two weeks
Chris Douglas-Roberts is still recovering from his injury, but team officials said that the third-year guard could return to practice in two weeks after a recent examination.
Douglas-Roberts, whose career almost ended because of right eye injury sustained in a practice session before the season, will be allowed to play, but he will have to wear protective goggles
as a precautionary measure.
“I still have some blurred vision and I still see the floaters a little, but it's much better than it was because I couldn't see anything out of the right eye for a week,” said Douglas-Roberts,
who averaged 12.3 points in Milwaukee’s eight pre-season games this year.
After he was poked in the eye by Andrew Bogut in a practice during the off-season, Douglas-Roberts admitted that he was surprised when the team doctors informed him that there's a huge tear
in the retina of his eye, which will need an immediate treatment.
“I went in expecting to get some eye drops. They put a lens in my eye and looked all around it and that took about 6 minutes,” said Douglas-Roberts about the procedure done after the incident.
“When they took the lens out, all of the nurses and doctors were walking out of the office looking really worried. Then the nurse took me in the room and drew everything out, 'OK, you have a huge tear in the retina’.”
The doctors also informed the 23-year-old guard that he could have lost his vision in the right eye if it was not treated quickly, which would have forced him to end his NBA career. “They
said it was good they caught it early. They had to put a needle in my eye, and that was the worst. They froze the tear. It was the most painful thing ever,” he said.
Despite the setback, Douglas-Roberts said that he is remaining optimistic about his career and added that he had been through this kind of the situation before his NBA career started.
After the New Jersey Nets selected him as the 40th overall pick in the 2008 draft, Douglas-Roberts sprained his MCL, causing him to miss the Nets’ first 12 games of the season.
Douglas-Roberts is currently keeping himself in shape to be ready when he’s given a go signal to practice with the Bucks, who currently have a 5-5 record.
“I have to condition myself and get myself back in shape on my own,” Douglas-Roberts said. “That's the thing about the NBA, it keeps moving. It is like a train; it does not stop. So I'm going
to have to get myself back in shape and I have to put in the extra work.”
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