Ricky Rubio has been non-existent this season. Mainly because of injury. All this time it’s been classed as a sprained ankle. But sprained ankles shouldn’t last this long. And according to USA Today, it’s worse. Possibly season ending.
It has been almost 11 weeks since he went down with a severely sprained left ankle, and the length of his recovery has drawn impatience from a fan base desperate to see Rubio throw lob passes to Andrew Wiggins.
But on a night when the Wolves finally got center Nikola Pekovic back from a 31-game absence, coach Flip Saunders shed some light on the nature of Rubio’s injury. Saunders said Rubio not only suffered a high ankle sprain against Orlando on Nov. 7, but also damaged some muscles and ligaments that lead from his ankle to his toes, prolonging the recovery process.
“It’s not him not wanting to play or not working,” Saunders said before Wednesday night’s game against Dallas. “He’s doing everything he can. We as an organization and the doctors who are involved have been the ones who have tried to hold him back.”
“It’s a very unique ankle sprain,” Saunders said. “They said at the time it’s going to be worse than a high ankle sprain, and everyone knows those go eight to 12 weeks. So it has nothing to do with him not wanting to play.“
I’m surprised that it took the T’Wolves fans this long to actually notice that Rubio has been gone 11 weeks.
But because Pekovic has returned and KMart is close to returning. All Minnesota eyes are on Ricky Rubio, who just cannot get a clean bill of health.
