Foot, ankle surgeon waxes optimistic on Kevin Durant’s recovery from Achilles tear
Warriors expat Kevin Durant still can’t walk on his own, but a “renowned” foot and ankle surgeon anticipates a near-complete (if not fully complete) recovery for the two-time NBA Finals MVP.
Durant, 30 and in his 12th NBA season, tore his Achilles in Game 5 of June’s NBA Finals. Shortly after that, Durant left the Warriors and signed with the Brooklyn Nets as a free agent.
Recently Nets Insider consulted with Dr. Steven Weinfeld, a Chief of Foot and Ankle Surgery at Mount Sinai Health System, who isn’t ruling out a return to the court this season.
“I think he’ll probably be somewhere between 90 and 100 percent,” Weinfeld told Nets Insider. “That’s my thought assuming everything goes smoothly and he doesn’t have any setbacks.”
Weinfeld said Durant’s overall game is conducive to a successful recovery.
“You talk about odds of coming back to where he was, I think Durant’s odds are better than an athlete like John Wall (of the Wizards) whose whole game is quickness and explosiveness. He counts much more on those muscles being exactly where they need to be as opposed to a player like Durant and his style.”
Could Nets fans see him in a Brooklyn uniform this coming season?
“I think it’s unlikely that he would play this season,” said Weinfeld,” but I’d be pleasantly surprised if he did come back. Certainly things you want to be clear about as a surgeon allowing an athlete to come back to play high level sport is that obviously their repair is healed enough and that their strength is where it needs to be and that’s what takes the longest in an Achilles injury. It’s not so much the healing of the tendon, that usually takes somewhere between four, five or six months, but the strength of the calf muscle doesn’t usually come back for about a year and sometimes even longer. So that’s what keeps the high performance athlete out as long as it does because you really have to be sure their strength is as good as it can be before you let them come back.”