The Philadelphia 76ers definitely expected Joel Embiid to be out of commission numerous times this season. That is simply the natural course of things for the superstar, who basically only has one functional knee at this point in his career. Unfortunately, it seems like he just cannot catch a break, as the team now has another major point of concern with the superstar.
Ahead for their Thursday night matinee against the Warriors, the 76ers released their injury report as usual. But this time, not only is Embiid listed as doubtful to play against Golden State, but his condition has seen a change. This time, both of his knees are tossed up as the reasons behind his probable absence.
As everyone knows, Embiid’s main issue since entering the league has been his left knee, which was never really 100 percent healthy since he was a rookie. Now, his right knee is starting to get afflicted by the injury bug, and that is definitely something that should raise the panic alarm in Philly moving forward.
Joel Embiid is now facing another challenge in his injury-laden career
Given that Embiid’s right knee has never really caused him much trouble, one might be tempted to deem his current injury therein as a one-off thing. However, that is where things can get dicey due to the implications of his current condition.
The former MVP’s right knee is most likely banged up as a result of having to compensate for his left one which, on its own, can no longer sustain Embiid playing professional basketball. I am no sports medicine expert, but it is not difficult to infer that shifting the majority of the stress onto one knee will probably have consequences to some degree.
Embiid is basically day-to-day with his playing status, but his right knee being hobbled does make his condition even more temperamental than before. The 76ers are basically playing with fire when they deploy him out there and have him play significant minutes. In their recent game against the Hawks, he played a season-high 30 minutes and was quickly shut down for the following contest.
As if they have not been delicate, the 76ers now have to get even more conservative with respect to finding windows of opportunity to play Joel Embiid. That is just how precarious his injury situation is, and this will have to be their controlling disposition for the foreseeable future, although it might trigger a lot of negative reactionary takes from fans and pundits alike.