Rookie Magic forward Chuma Okeke suffered a left knee bone bruise in the fourth quarter of the club’s 116-92 loss to the Sixers on Thursday, per Roy Parry of the Orlando Sentinel. Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN adds that Okeke will at least miss several weeks of activity with the injury.
Okeke tore his left ACL in March 2019 while a sophomore at Auburn. Nevertheless, Orlando drafted the 6’8″ forward with the No. 16 pick in that summer’s draft, though he missed the entire 2019/20 season as he continued to recover from the injury. A team source tells Parry that, this time, all ligaments in the knee appear intact following an MRI, and that the timeline of Okeke’s recovery is contingent on treatment.
Okeke averaged 9.9 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 1.5 APG, and 1.28 SPG in 72 games while at Auburn. Still just 22, he is averaging 3.0 PPG, 2.6 RPG, and 1.6 APG across 18.0 MPG in his first five games with the Magic this season.
“Out for weeks” or “out four weeks”?