[Hayes] Doctor suggest Joel Embiid may need “radical procedure” like microfracture surgery, meniscus replacement, low-dose radiation therapy, or osteotomy (breaking a bone in the hip to realign the joint) to heal which would potentially sideline him for 6 months to over a year.
The original plan was to let Embiid get used to playing with pain, the way Dwyane Wade did during his Hall of Fame career, regularly draining the knee and injecting it with platelet-rich plasma (PRP). Sixers doctors and experts interviewed by The Inquirer considered this the best way for Embiid to rehabilitate the injury for the long-term. Once it reached a certain point of healing, resting the knee would not help it recover; it would, in fact, hurt it.
However, it has been several weeks since Embiid has gotten better. Lately he’s gotten worse. NBA sources say the big guy has become morose about his latest injury battle as a series of ominous options loom — options that could cost him the rest of this season and maybe some of the next.
The same Sixer who made “orbital bone fracture” and “navicular bone fracture” common phrases in Philadelphia sports lexicon — he’s had two of each — might soon add one of these: microfracture surgery; meniscus replacement; low-dose radiation therapy; or even the ominous-sounding osteotomy, in which doctors break a bone in the hip to realign the joint to alleviate pressure.
One source called the procedures “radical” in light of the mundane injury and surgery that brought Embiid to this point. For some reason, what should have been a routine rehab and a routine return to play has gone horribly wrong.
Doctors with whom The Inquirer spoke over the past weeks say some of these procedures require six months to a year before an athlete can return to full action, and that any return will invariably come with long-term limitations.