Kyrie Irving to miss 8th consecutive game as team suspension continues to grow
Kyrie Irving will be out up to 8 weeks with a left ankle sprain suffered Sunday night while playing for the Boston Celtics in a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers during the NBA playoffs.
Irving had surgery on his ankle Thursday and said earlier this week there’s a chance he might miss the rest of the year.
“I’ve gotten a lot of the pain out of it. So I think I’m not that far down the line,” he said before the Celtics blew a 13-point lead in the fourth quarter and came back to win at a buzzer-beating 97-96.
“It’s definitely scary for me. My ankle’s swelling right now, and we’ve got time but I expect me to be back sooner rather than later. But for now, I’m just taking it day by day and enjoying basketball.”
The Celtics had already decided to put Irving on the season’s final injury list prior to Sunday’s game. He did not practice Wednesday, and then was limited in practice Thursday because of a sore ankle.
Coach Brad Stevens said he was concerned about Irving’s ankle. “We didn’t know if he could do the running, we were hoping he could do the running but he can’t,” Stevens said. “So we just left him out there so he could get more treatment.”
But while there was an expectation that Irving would miss at least a few games, the timeline for the rest of the year has become a guessing game, with Irving only saying Wednesday that he expects to rejoin the team at some point this week.
“I feel like, after going home and having this injury and surgery done, there’s a chance that this is one of those injuries that might last into the postseason,” Irving said. “So I feel like this is going to be a short-term injury. I feel like it’s something I’ll be able to be back at some point and it’ll just depend on what’s going to happen as far as how long
