Zion Williamson, the New Orleans star, who had surgery on his right foot during the summer, will be re-evaluated in two weeks and will therefore miss the first games of the NBA season.
Pelicans fans will have to be patient. They won’t see Zion Williamson on a floor until the end of October, at best. Operated on his right foot during the summer, after injuring himself in training before the Summer League in early August, the 21-year-old strong winger, No. 1 in the 2019 draft, will be re-evaluated in two weeks, has New Orleans franchise vice president of basketball operations David Griffin said, noting that no return schedule had been established. “Zion had an MRI on his right foot on Wednesday,” he explained after training Thursday. The doctors who reviewed these images were very encouraged by the evidence of a cure. They are very optimistic that he is recovering from this and have allowed him to continue his progression. The next step for him now will be racing and individual fieldwork. Given the nature of the bone scarring, there is no set timeline for its return to play, but the doctors are very encouraged by this latest batch of images. As he continues his return-to-play progression, medics will use an additional MRI, which takes place in two to two and a half weeks, as guides and benchmarks for taking the next steps. It’s everyone’s goal for Zion to come back to play as soon as possible and safely. “
At least five games missed
So that means Zion will miss at least the top five of the regular season, against Philadelphia, Chicago, Minnesota (twice) and against Atlanta. The Louisiana franchise, which has lost three of its four preseason games, is hoping it can count on its iconic player, who shot 27 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.7 assists last season in 33 minutes, and who missed only eleven games, showing that he was physically strong, after a rookie season where he did not had played only 24 games. Despite the good season of Zion, New Orleans could not do better than eleventh in the Western Conference last spring (31 wins – 41 wins) and therefore did not play the play-offs.
