Oden out 2-4 weeks with right foot injury
Here is the official statement from the Trail Blazers:
MRI AND CAT SCAN CONFIRMS ODEN FOOT SPRAIN
PORTLAND, Ore. – A Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Computerized Axial Tomography (CAT) Scan today confirmed Portland Trail Blazers center Greg Oden has a mid-lateral right foot sprain.
The MRI revealed a couple of avulsions that are not believed serious and do not require surgery.
Oden is expected to be out 2-4 weeks.
The injury occurred during the first quarter of Portland’s Tuesday night game at the Los Angeles Lakers.
NBA, Trail Blazers | Dwight Jaynes | October 29, 2008
That’s a relief, could have been much worse. Let this guy easy back into the lineup when he’s back to 100%. No need to rush, no need to thrust him into the starting line-up either. This is about next year and the seasons to follow.
Crossposted at http://www.blazersedge.com:
“An avulsion fracture is when a small piece of the bone where a tendon or ligament is attached gets pulled off. Basically, there’s some serious force placed on that attachment point usually from a twisting that pulls the tendon/ligament farther than it’s supposed to or can go. Something has to give, and it can be a small piece of the bone at that attachment point. In the mid-foot, it’s often the bone because there are numerous thick layers of tendon and ligament webbing them together.
I had an avulsion of my medial ankle due to a pronation sprain. (I was playing ultimate frisbee and landed wrong, rolled my foot “in” instead of the more usual “outward” roll. Very very painful.) The x-rays showed a small sliver of bone that had become detached, but the deltoid ligament was intact, which was the important part. In my x-ray, it looked like a small fingernail clipping.
In the foot, you don’t have to worry too much about the bones moving around, because there’s not much room to move around and because there are so many structural elements in there to keep things in place. Because of that, unless there are really severe fractures, immobilizing and resting the foot will allow the bones to knit back where they should be. There’s no structural damage to the bones right now, because it’s just a thin layer of the bone that gets pulled off. In fact, the bone knitting process can actually make the affected area stronger.
It sounds bad, but it’s actually a fairly common injury with a straightforward treatment and very good recovery results. This is not something to be significantly worried about right now. That being said, if he’s rushed back, it could become chronic. (Personally, I’m very confident that the Blazers will be very, very careful with his return.)”