Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid will have a second surgery on his injured right foot that will likely cause him to miss the 2015-16 season, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Joel Embiid likely to miss 2015-16 season after foot surgery, per report
The latest for the 76ers’ center is bad news.
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The Sixers are concerned that the injury could be career-threatening, per the Inquirer. Philadelphia is going into the season planning that Embiid will not play this year.
Embiid was scheduled to be the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft until he underwent foot surgery shortly before. Instead, Embiid was selected by the Sixers with the third pick, but he proceeded to miss the entire 2014-15 season.
Last month, the Sixers announced Embiid had suffered another setback, but they did not give a timetable for his return or rule him out for the year. Now, Embiid definitely will undergo a second surgery, and the only question is when and where he will have it.
Embiid still hasn’t made his NBA debut and it has been 16 months since he played in a game at Kansas, where he was the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. While at Kansas, Embiid missed the Big 12 and NCAA Tournaments with a stress fracture in his back, prior to the pre-draft foot surgery.
The history for big men with foot problems is not good, bringing a quicker end to the careers of Bill Walton and Yao Ming to name just a couple. Philadelphia reportedly saw Embiid as a franchise big man worth building their team around, but with the health concerns, those aspirations might be slipping away.
Philadelphia drafted Jahlil Okafor for the No. 3 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. Some speculated that drafting another big name while already having Embiid and Nerlens Noel on the roster showed how concerned they were with Embiid’s health.
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