Rudy Gobert Injury Update: Utah Jazz Star’s Timetable for NBA Return
On Friday night, a Rudy Gobert injury occurred that has Utah Jazz fans concerned for one of their team’s top stars. The NBA All-Star was hurt early in the team’s win over the Boston Celtics. So far it appears the news is not too bad as far as Gobert’s injury goes, but it could certainly affect his team and fantasy basketball owners over the next several weeks. Here are the latest details about how Rudy Gobert was hurt and how long fans might see him on the bench until he returns to action with the Utah Jazz.
Gobert’s injury happened in just the first two minutes of Utah’s game against the Celtics on Friday, which ended up being a 107-95 win for the visitors. On the early play, Jazz teammate Derrick Favors fell against Gobert’s leg during a rebound attempt. A Twitter video arrived online showing the play where the injury occurred. After the play, Gobert was removed from the game and headed back to the locker room.
On Saturday, Yahoo! Sports‘ journalist Shams Charania of The Vertical tweeted that Rudy Gobert was officially diagnosed as having a sprained PCL in his left knee as well as a bone bruise in his tibia. The combination of the two injuries will reportedly have the big man out of action for up to a month, as of this report. Favors also took a shot to the face in last night’s game that required six stitches.
As of right now, it appears his teammate Derrick Favors will be the team’s starter and is expected to play tonight in a road game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Rookie Tony Bradley was just recalled from the G-League to provide some help. While he’s listed on the team’s depth chart, Bradley hasn’t had a lot of playing time so far in the season due to his struggles to transition to the NBA from college. The No. 28 pick in this past summer’s draft has logged just 1.7 minutes per game over the team’s last 10 contests.
This is the second time Rudy Gobert has suffered an injury this current NBA season. Just last month, he was reported to have a bone bruise in his right knee that would keep him out of action for as much as six weeks. However, he returned to play for the team sooner than expected on December 4th, missing just 11 games.
The Utah Jazz All-Star is averaging 11.6 points and an impressive 19.6 rebounds this season for his team. The Utah Jazz are currently 14-15 overall and sitting in fifth place in their division. As far as the early “playoff contenders” look to be potential contenders for a No. 7 or No. 8 seed, but would finish just below the No. 8 Oklahoma City Thunder if the playoffs started today.
