Washington Wizards all-star guard John Wall ruptured his left Achilles’ tendon “after slipping and falling in his home” and is expected to be out at least 12 months from the time of his latest upcoming surgery, the team announced on Tuesday.
Wall, 28, was originally expected to miss six to eight months after undergoing surgery on his left heel on Jan. 8. One of the reasons Wall opted to undergo season-ending surgery to remove bone spurs from his left heel was to hopefully avoid a more serious injury, such as an Achilles’ tear. But according to Dr. Wiemi Douoguih, the Wizards’ director of medical services, Wall stumbled inside his home on Jan. 29, which led to the rupture of his tendon.
An initial checkup after the fall showed nothing abnormal, but Douoguih said he discovered the extent of the damage on Monday while performing a surgery on Wall to address an infection of the original surgical wound.
“There was a surgical site infection. We tried to put him on antibiotics, it wasn’t getting better. So we just went to explore it and incidentally found that he had a rupture at the time of the surgery,” Douoguih said. “It wasn’t completely ruptured in that there were a few strands still attached and that’s likely what threw off our examination but there’s no question that functionally the tendon was torn at the time of that surgery.”
Wall, a five-time all-star and former No. 1 overall pick, will require his fifth major surgery since the spring of 2016. Wall has remained optimistic and expressed relief that the injury occurred now while he was already expected to miss significant time, according to a person close to the point guard.
Wall averaged 20.7 points, 8.7 assists and 3.6 rebounds in 32 games for the Wizards this season. Wall’s four-year, $170 million “supermax” contract extension will kick in next season. Due to the latest injury, he will miss the majority of the 2019-20 season, if not of all it. Recovery may take from 11 to 15 months, Douoguih said.
If Wall’s timeline is closer to 15 months, then he would not return to full basketball activity until May 2020. At that point, the Wizards will either be in the 2020 playoffs or at home awaiting a lottery pick.
“Functionally, it’s completely torn in the sense that he won’t be able to play with the amount of damage he has,” Douoguih said. “What it does, though, is it throws you off on an exam because if you’re doing sort of a low-energy exam and you’re testing it, it seems like the tendon may be OK. But when we explored it, there’s no question that he had enough damage there that he won’t be able to play on it without surgery.”
Wall will undergo the surgery as early as next week, and it will be performed by Robert Anderson in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the same doctor who handled the procedure on his left heel in January. As far as what kind of player Wall will be following another major surgery, the Wizards have few estimations.
“You know, there’s no way to tell,” Douoguih said. “I think our focus right now is on performing an excellent surgery, getting John’s tendon reattached and then going through the rehab program. I don’t think we can say . . . we don’t have a whole lot of data on elite NBA point guards with tendon ruptures. John is an unusual specimen because of his talent, his abilities and the demands placed on his body, so we’ll just have to wait and see.”
TUESDAY’S GAMES
RAPTORS 119, 76ERS 107: Kawhi Leonard finished with 24 points and Toronto held on at Philadelphia in a matchup between two of the Eastern Conference’s top teams.
PACERS 136, LAKERS 94: Bojan Bogdanovic scored 24 points and Indiana tied an NBA franchise record by making 19 3-pointers at Indianapolis, handing LeBron James the most lopsided loss of his career.
James’ teams lost by 36 points twice previously.
CLIPPERS 117, HORNETS 115: Tobias Harris scored 34 points, including a running jumper in the lane with 4.3 seconds remaining, and Los Angeles rallied from 20 points down at Charlotte, North Carolina.
Charlotte had a chance to tie or take the lead on its last possession, but Marvin Williams’ 3-point attempt was short at the buzzer.
PISTONS 105, KNICKS 92: Blake Griffin scored 29 points, and Andre Drummond finished with 17 points and 16 rebounds as Detroit won at New York, handing the Knicks their 14th straight loss.
NOTES
WIZARDS: Point guard John Wall will be sidelined for more than another year after rupturing his left Achilles tendon while slipping and falling at home.
MAGIC: Reserve center Mo Bamba will be out indefinitely with a stress fracture in his left leg.
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