NBA Injury Expert Details Dallas Mavs’ Kyrie Irving Heel Contusion, Possible Timetable for Return
The Dallas Mavericks dodged a bullet on Friday night, as Kyrie Irving’s scary leg injury was deemed as being a “heel contusion” on Saturday. This was one of the better scenarios the Mavs could’ve hoped for, especially when considering how bad the replays of the injury looked with Dwight Powell falling on Irving’s foot.
Upon hearing the initial Irving injury news, we reached out to DallasBasketball.com consultant Jeff Stotts, who is a certified athletic trainer and the owner of InStreetClothes.com, to get a better idea of what to expect from Irving’s heel contusion going forward.
“The term ‘heel contusion’ is a bit vague and could be a myriad of things,” Stotts told DBcom. “The fact that we have heard [Kyrie] is in ‘significant pain’ makes me think it will be longer than the average time associated with general heel contusions (around two games). Worst case scenario would be a significant bone injury, but that doesn’t seem to be happening here.”
With that being said, one would think that Irving, at the very least, would be missing the Mavs’ next two games against the Memphis Grizzlies and the Los Angeles Lakers. And he might miss even more time than that, but even so, the Mavs are just happy that this didn’t end up being a season-ending type of injury. They will gladly and patiently wait for Irving to return with the grand plan being to have him 100 percent healthy come playoff time.
Heading into Monday night’s game against the struggling Memphis Grizzlies at FedExForum, the Mavs are 13-8 and currently sit in third place in the Western Conference standings. Dallas lost to Memphis on Dec. 1 at American Airlines Center with Luka Doncic sitting out due to the birth of his daughter. Now, it looks like Irving will miss the upcoming matchup.
