October 04, 2016
When Bryan Colangelo gave his injury update (which was really a non-update) a few days ago, he indicated that it would be better to move forward quickly once a decision on Ben Simmons’ surgery was made.
Well, the Sixers did just that, announcing that the top overall pick underwent successful surgery on Tuesday while also specifying his injury:
The Philadelphia 76ers announced today that forward Ben Simmons underwent successful surgery to repair an acute Jones fracture of the fifth metatarsal of his right foot. Simmons suffered the injury when he rolled his ankle after landing on the foot of another player during a 76ers team scrimmage on September 30, 2016.
The surgery was performed by Dr. Martin O’Malley, Associate Attending Orthopaedic Surgeon and Fellowship Director of the Foot and Ankle Service at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City. Dr. Jonathan Glashow, Sixers Chief Medical Officer and Co-Chief of Sports Medicine Orthopedics at New York’s Mount Sinai Medical Center, assisted with the procedure.
For reference, O’Malley and Glashow were two of the five doctors that performed Joel Embiid's bone-graft surgery last August.
In layman’s terms: The fifth metatarsal is the bone on the outside of your foot below the toe. An acute fracture is a one-time injury (in this case, landing on his teammate’s foot), as opposed to a stress fracture which happens due to overuse. That’s the good news. The bad news that as opposed to an Avulsion fracture at the base of the metatarsal, a Jones fracture tends to heal a tad slower comparatively.
If you’d like further info on Simmons’ injury, I highly recommend the latest episode of Sixers Beat. The Sixers provided no recovery timetable.
In other news, Brett Brown put a number on Joel Embiid’s minutes limit tonight:
Embiid will be limited to 12 minutes tonight, used in segments not consecutively.
— Jessica Camerato (@JCameratoCSN) October 4, 2016
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann
