Kevin Durant has confirmed that he had surgery on his ruptured right Achilles in an Instagram post. He suffered the injury in Game 5 of the NBA Finals against the Raptors Monday night. He waited until Wednesday to make the official announcement on his own social media.
He reportedly flew to New York Tuesday to undergo an MRI. Durant states that the surgery was successful and that he is on the road to recovery, while he can be seen in the hospital bed. The full post can be seen below.
According to Very Well Health, the timeline for recovery for athletes from an Achilles rupture is at least six months, but sometimes more.
In general, most patients return to walking in 4-6 weeks, strengthening after about 8 weeks, and exercising at 3 months. Most patients who are athletes do not return to their sport for about 6 months, and many can take longer to fully recover from Achilles surgery.
Durant’s post finally confirms previous reports about the severity of the injury. Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported earlier this week that Durant was “not anywhere close to 100 percent” for Game 5, even though he was cleared to play.
Haynes also passed along rumors that some league personnel felt soon after the injury that it was going to be worse than the initial calf strain suffered in the Western Conference Finals.
There was speculation from league personnel that the injury had to have been more than just a calf strain when he originally was hurt in the second-round series against the Houston Rockets.
Warriors general manager Bob Myers spoke about the previous injury during an emotional postgame press conference after Durant left Monday’s game. As Haynes points out, Myers openly stated again that the first injury was indeed his calf.
“The initial injury was a calf injury,” Myers said. “This is not a calf injury. I’m not a doctor. I don’t know how those are related or not, but it’s a different injury.”
“Everybody’s fake acting like they care about KD’s best interest when they don’t. It’s phony to me.”
There’s even been some analysts that claimed that Durant was forced into action too soon by the media and fans. ESPN’s Jalen Rose stated on First Take Tuesday that the All-Star took the bait from “phony” supporters.
“If the Golden State Warriors were up 3-1, KD would not have returned. Since they were down 3-1, he was forced to return based on all of the chatter that we knew was going to take place. ‘He’s soft. He didn’t want it. He’s not committed to the team.’…He knew that, that’s why he decided to come back.
“People will bring flowers to your funeral, but don’t bring you soup when you’re sick. That’s what I’m seeing for KD right now. Everybody’s fake acting like they care about KD’s best interest when they don’t. It’s phony to me.”
Regardless, now the speculation shifts from what his injury is to what the future holds for Durant. How will this affect his free agency stock this summer? Time will tell.
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LOOK: Kevin Durant Receives Surgery on Ruptured Achilles per His IG