Wizards forward Bilal Coulibaly underwent surgery on Friday in order to repair a torn ligament in his right thumb, reports Shams Charania of ESPN (Twitter link).
According to Charania, Coulibaly – who sustained the injury while playing for the French national team at EuroBasket 2025 – will likely miss some time at the start of the regular season.
The Wizards have formally confirmed that Coulibaly underwent thumb surgery, but didn’t provide any sort of recovery timeline, simply stating that the 21-year-old’s status will be updated as appropriate (Twitter link).
The seventh overall pick in the 2023 draft, Coulibaly was a full-time starter for the Wizards last season, averaging 12.3 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.3 steals in 33.0 minutes per game across 59 outings. Although his shooting percentages slipped to 42.1% from the field and 28.1% on three-point attempts, the Frenchman has shown real promise as a two-way wing and just turned 21 in July.
Coulibaly averaged 6.3 points and 4.3 rebounds in 18.8 minutes per contest in six games for France at EuroBasket. The team was eliminated in the round of 16 by Georgia, with the Wizards forward going scoreless in that game.
While Coulibaly’s injury is an unfortunate setback for a player seeking a breakout year ahead of his rookie scale extension eligibility in 2026, it will open the door for some of Washington’s other young wings to make a case for playing time during training camp and the preseason. That group includes Cam Whitmore, Will Riley, AJ Johnson, Dillon Jones, and Malaki Branham.
It might explain why his play fell off in the middle of Eurobasket.