Martell Webster was forced to miss the entire preseason with a hip injury, but he thought it was nothing too serious and returned to practice on Tuesday. Webster went through the full practice on Tuesday and thought he would be able to play in the Washington Wizards' regular season opener but he felt something at the end of practice. Webster has since revealed that he has a partially torn labrum in his right hip and is weighing whether to undergo season ending surgery, according to Jorge Castillo of The Washington Post.
Webster has said that he will try to play through the hip injury but if it does not improve surgery is the road he will have to go down. The surgery would take about four to six months to heal, and although that could potentially bring him back for the end of the season, it would likely be season-ending. Webster did insist, though, that if he had the hip surgery it would not be career-ending.
Webster has dealt with injuries before and has had three back surgeries in a four-year span. The 28-year-old forward only played in 32 games last year and is looking to play even less than that this year. Webster has not yet decided on whether to get the surgery, but a decision is expected somewhat soon, as he reportedly doesn't want the pain to linger and he doesn't want the injury to impact his performance.
The injury to Webster is an unfortunate one for him personally, but the Wizards should be just fine should he decide to get the surgery. Washington is extremely deep on the wings this year, and Webster was likely sixth in line for minutes at best. Bradley Beal and Otto Porter are expected to start on the wings, while Jared Dudley, Gary Neal and Alan Anderson are all likely ahead of Webster on the depth chart. Webster might have been able to sneak in some minutes at the beginning of the season because Anderson is also expected to miss some time with an ankle injury, but that time might fall to rookie Kelly Oubre now.
Webster has played 10 years in the NBA and has career averages of 8.7 points and 3.1 rebounds per game while shooting 38 percent from deep. Last season Webster only played 11 minutes per game and was hoping to earn a bigger role this year, but that seems highly doubtful now, and surgery is probably his best bet.
