Thunder swingman Andre Roberson has suffered another setback in his recovery from knee surgery, a team spokesperson said today, per Royce Young of ESPN.com (Twitter links). As Young relays, Roberson experienced discomfort after landing from a jump, and an MRI revealed that he had suffered a small avulsion fracture in his knee. He’ll be re-evaluated in six weeks.
While Roberson’s latest setback is discouraging, it doesn’t entirely reset his timetable, Young notes. The 26-year-old had been progressing toward a return, but was still a ways off from making his 2018/19 debut anyway. In six weeks, the Thunder should have a better sense of when exactly he might be ready get back on the court, says Young.
It has been an unfortunate run of bad luck for Roberson, who missed a good chunk of the 2017/18 campaign, including the playoffs, due to the knee injury he initially suffered back in January. Even after he underwent another procedure in May, there was a hope that he’d be ready for the start of this season, but he sustained at least one setback in the fall that pushed back his recovery timetable. Today’s news comes on the heels of a report that his rehab was on “a really good track.”
The Thunder have played well in Roberson’s absence this season, getting off to a 13-7 start. Still, they won’t be at their best until they have their top perimeter defender back in the lineup, so they’ll hope the former first-round pick is able to make it back for the second half of 2018/19.