Doctor clarifies Steph’s injury is a variant high ankle sprain that originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
The Warriors released an update on superstar Steph Curry on Sunday that, to many, sounded more like a high school biology lesson.
“An MRI [Saturday] Night confirmed that Curry suffered partial tears to his upper tibiofibular ligaments and interosseous membrane as well as a lower leg contusion,” the team said in a statement Sunday.
As NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole reported Sunday, Curry is expected to be sidelined for a few weeks and will miss at least the team’s next five games. The Warriors are hoping their star guard can return soon after the All-Star break.
But what exactly did this injury update mean? Dr. Seth Sherman, an orthopedic surgeon for Stanford Medicine, clarified lingering questions surrounding Curry’s diagnosis in an interview with NBC Sports Bay Area.
The “interosseous membrane” referred to in the statement is “essentially a sheet of tissue between the tibia bone and the fibula bone,” Sherman said. “And then you have the lower ligaments, the tibiofibular ligaments, which attach the tibia bone to the fibula.
“This MRI terminology boils down to a partial injury or sprain variant of the upper ankle.”
A variant of high ankle sprain. Got it. Does that mean Curry could miss more than a few weeks?
“The end result: High ankle sprains have more variable time frames than low ankle variants,” Dr. Sherman said. “…Timelines can vary depending on the severity of course – days to weeks, sometimes weeks to months. Luckily, that gets ahead of us in this particular scenario.
Curry was injured in the third quarter of the Warriors’ 119-113 win over the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday. He suffered the injury when Dallas guard McKinley Wright IV’s right knee made contact with Curry’s left leg.
The Warriors guard recovered from numerous injuries during his 14-year NBA career, including a left shoulder subluxation that forced him to miss 11 games in December and January.
This recovery process should be no different.
“This is a high ankle variation. If it’s more stable and a low-grade injury, I think there’s definitely hope and optimism,” Dr. Sherman said.[Curry], of course, has shown resilience in other injuries during his career. I think he has an exceptional team supporting him, medical staff and training. Certainly, from our experience here at Stanford with similar injuries in a variety of sports, those injuries certainly allow athletes to come back and perform at the highest level.
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Golden State has won seven of 15 games without Curry this season. They’ll have to figure out a winning formula without the heart and soul of their team all over again.
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