It was recently announced that Wizards‘ wing Bilal Coulibaly underwent surgery to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb that he suffered during his time with the French national team competing at EuroBasket. Grant Afseth of RG has now provided an update on the timeline of Coulibaly’s recovery process.
According to Afseth, the 21-year-old is expected to miss six-to-eight weeks, which means he’ll likely be sidelined for at least the first week of the season, which tips off on October 21. Afseth notes that even if Coulibaly were to get back to full health on the earlier side of that timeline, he would still have to undergo a full return-to-competition ramp-up.
“Usually, you’re not touching a basketball, unless it’s just to do off-hand work, until that six-week mark,” a source told Afseth. “Then he’d have to do contact work before playing.”
Coulibaly averaged 12.3 points, 3.4 assists, and 1.3 steals per game for the Wizards last season before missing the final 23 games of the season with a hamstring injury. He saw his three-point shooting numbers drop from 34.6% as a rookie to 28.1% as a sophomore while shouldering a larger offensive workload.
Afseth notes that once Coulibaly returns, he’s expected to resume his place as a key member of the Wizards’ rebuild. A strong defender and open-court player, he projects to fit well alongside 2025 first-round pick Tre Johnson on the wing.
Afseth notes that Coulibaly’s teammate on both the French national team and Wizards, Alex Sarr, was also injured in competition, suffering a calf injury that caused him to pull out of the tournament.
Bilal Coulibaly played like crap all FIBA Euro Basket, and now will miss the first month of the season. SMH
He should’ve been in the states working on his game in 5 on 5 settings.
He got hurt during EuroBasket and further aggravated it.