Jimmy Butler Injury Update: Timberwolves All-Star To Have Surgery For Right Meniscus

The latest Jimmy Butler injury update indicates that the Minnesota Timberwolves star will be sidelined for a number of games. The latest reports come after Butler suffered a scary non-contact injury in Friday night’s game against the Houston Rockets. While the Timberwolves lost that game 120-102, there was concern that they’d also lost one of their top stars for the remainder of the season. Here are the latest details on Jimmy Butler’s injury and the Minnesota outlook.

On Saturday, ESPN reported that an MRI revealed Jimmy Butler’s right meniscus injury. That actually came as a relief for the NBA All-Star as he had feared it might be a torn ACL injury, which could have ended his season. Still, it will require surgery to repair the meniscus and recovery time. As of right now, there has yet to be any report as far as how long Butler will be out. However, Butler seemed to indicate he’ll be back in time for the NBA Playoffs. That could be great timing if his team can maintain their current level in the Western Conference standings.

Butler seems to be staying positive despite knowing he’ll be sidelined for a bit of time now. He posted a new Instagram photo earlier on Saturday showing that he’s still all smiles.

After the loss to Houston, Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Tom Thibodeau spoke to the media about his star’s injury and the approach they’ll take.

“I’m not going to elaborate other than we’re going to say it’s a meniscus injury right now. Until he can gather the information and then we can go forward from there. We had travel problems [Friday] night, so we didn’t get back ’til late today; so we want to give Jimmy the opportunity to talk to the medical people that he needs to talk to for us to proceed.”

Butler’s teammate Taj Gibson also said seeing Jimmy’s attitude after the injury would make it hard to know he was hurt. However, Gibson also said he will continue to stress to Butler not to make a return to the court until he’s fully healthy. Gibson has seen another star player go down with an injury or two, as he played in Chicago as a teammate not only of Butler’s, but also alongside Derrick Rose.

Even after their loss on Friday night, the Timberwolves (36-26) are still sitting in fourth place in the Western Conference standings. The team is 11 games back from the first-place Houston Rockets. The Timberwolves also lead the Northwest division. Minnesota was in action against the Chicago Bulls at home on Friday night, with 19 more games left for the regular season.

It’s still looking like the Timberwolves will end up in the postseason, but their success will rest quite a bit on whether or not they have a healthy Jimmy Butler in the lineup.

Update 2/25/18: Jimmy Butler has undergone meniscus surgery, as reported by ESPN. He is currently ruled out “indefinitely.”