Memphis Grizzlies center Marc Gasol was revealed to have a broken foot a couple of weeks ago, and it was assumed he would miss the remainder of this current season. The Grizzlies finally announced as much this week, as they said he underwent surgery on the foot and his season is officially over. Whenever you hear about 7-footers having foot problems, people always think the worst and assume it could ruin his career, but the Grizzlies are confident that he will be back to where he was before the injury, according to Kevin Lipe of the Memphis Flyer.
The Grizzlies announced Tuesday morning that Gasol had undergone successful surgery to repair a Type 2 fracture of his navicular bone, according to Chris Herrington of The Memphis Commercial Appeal. The Grizzlies did not give Gasol a timetable for when he might be able to return to basketball activities. For now, all that is known is that Gasol will miss the rest of the regular season and the playoffs for the Grizzlies.
The first thing that comes to a lot of people's minds when they hear foot surgery is Yao Ming who had his career ended because of foot problems. People forget though, that Michael Jordan had similar foot surgery that Yao had towards the beginning of his career and he turned out alright. Grizzlies GM Chris Wallace expects a full recovery from Gasol and for him to continue to be one of the best centers in the NBA when he returns, according to NBA.com.
"Marc remains a cornerstone of our franchise and we are pleased to hear that the surgery went according to plan. Marc's determination and competitive spirit will serve him, his family and the team well as he begins the healing and rehab process from which we expect him to make a full recovery. We are confident we will have Marc back anchoring our team next season and beyond," said Wallace.
The Grizzlies are confident that as long as Gasol takes care of himself and rehabs hard, he will be the same player as before the injury. By all accounts, Gasol is an extremely hard working player and will play through almost anything, so that shouldn't be an issue. There is room for some doubt here, though, as Gasol is a big man and 31 years old, so a full recovery is far from a guarantee, but the Grizzlies' optimism has to ease some of the concern.
