David Lee has second surgery on infected elbow
Golden State Warriors power-forward David Lee underwent a second surgery to treat his infected elbow that caused him to miss his team’s last three games.
Lee, who is averaging 14.3 points and 11.3 rebounds per game this season, sustained the injury when he accidentally elbowed Wilson Chandler, who lost a tooth because of the collision, in
their game against the New York Knicks on 10 November.
According doctor Bill Maloney, the 24-year-old forward will still need more treatments to flush out the infection in the elbow, and he added that Lee might sit out for two to three weeks
more.
“Every time we look at it, it looks better, but these things are notoriously bad actors,” Maloney said. “Everybody wants him to get better and go back and play quickly, but the mistake we're
trying to avoid is letting him get back too soon and letting it get stirred up again.”
Maloney also talked about the speculation that the Knicks’ doctors, Lee’s former doctors when he was still with New York, did not treat the injury properly after the game. According to Maloney,
the Knicks’ staff should not be blamed because Lee’s current situation is unavoidable, no matter how it was treated after the incident.
“I know there is a lot of speculation out there, but it almost doesn't matter how it was treated,” Maloney said. “I don't think they could have avoided this. The die was cast when he got
the tooth through the skin with a deep enough puncture wound to allow the bacteria to get in there.”
Without Lee, the Warriors dropped two of their last three games, and they had a lot of problems with their inside game and rebounding during those three games.
“We really miss that guy,” said Warriors centre Andris Biedrins. “It’s really, really bad. Hopefully, he'll get better soon and be able to come back and help us.”
The Warriors, who won seven of their first 11 games this season, will face the Knicks again on Friday 19 November at the Oracle Arena in Oakland.
Tags: