Philadelphia 76ers’ All-Star center Joel Embiid will be forced to sit out at least one week due to knee soreness. The news was confirmed by 76ers’ head coach Brett Brown following team’s practice on Wednesday.
According to Brown, the soreness wasn’t caused by Embiid’s participation in the All-Star Game over the weekend, as the 24-year-old big struggled with the issue for some time now.
“Evidently, it reached a stage where [Embiid] just felt uncomfortable with it,” – said Brown. “So he had an MRI on it; there’s a little bit of tendinitis. It’s stuff that, I think, is quite common, actually.”
“The bottom line is nobody needs to read into anything here.” – he added. “This is an NBA athlete that has some soreness in a knee, that has had an MRI, and we all should move on. We’ll miss him, obviously, playing-wise, but it’s not anything that isn’t completely pointed toward keeping him ready, and especially keeping him ready when it matters most at the end of the year.”
Joel Embiid has been playing at the MVP level this year, and carried Philadelphia’s game for the better part of the season. He has been averaging 27.3 points, 13.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists per game.
Besides Embiid, Philadelphia 76ers will also have to deal with the absence of guard Furkan Korkmaz, who suffered an injury in last week’s game against Boston Celtics. Korkmaz underwent an MRI, which revealed a meniscus tear. The 21-year-old is currently out indefinitely, with several treatment options being considered.
