December 13, 2015

After taking elbow to the face from Lowry, Noel has to go to the hospital

By Rich Hofmann
PhillyVoice Contributor

Toronto Raptors All-Star point guard and North Philly native Kyle Lowry is one tough dude. That much isn’t up for debate.

Unfortunately, an at least somewhat reckless elbow from the Cardinal Dougherty (RIP) and Villanova product has put his hometown team in a difficult spot. This play, for which Lowry was assessed a technical foul, caused Sixers center Nerlens Noel to leave the game with a corneal abrasion in his left eye. To the crappy Vines!

Noel wouldn’t return to the game. Afterward, Brett Brown said that the Sixers sent their starting power forward to a Toronto hospital. With the second leg of a back-to-back tomorrow night in the Windy City, they wanted to make sure Noel was healthy enough to fly.

“We’re just taking precautionary measures,” Brown told reporters after the game. “We’ll be at 40,000 feet in the air. It’s a corneal abrasion and we’ll learn more, but to just look at it here then get on a plane, we didn’t feel it was wise because of the pressure being on an airplane heading to Chicago.”

This came after the Daily News’ Bob Cooney made this observation:

Just saw Nerlens Noel in the hallways behind locker room. He doesn't look good. Very woozy. Wouldn't surprise me if he's concussed.
— Bob Cooney (@BobCooney76) December 14, 2015

Brown seemed to think that Noel would be able to fly tonight, but it’s too early to say if he will be available tomorrow night in Chicago.

“We think he’s going to get checked a little bit better and more and we will get it stamped off on that it’s wise for him to fly,” Brown said. “He may (stay) but I don’t believe so.”

11:40 edit: Noel did fly with the team, per Cooney.