After Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum missed the entire fourth quarter with a calf injury on Thursday, the team made a surprising announcement about the four-time All-NBA first-teamer on Friday. Tatum is not listed on the Celtics injury report for Saturday’s decisive Game 7 against the Philadelphia 76ers, the team announced.
No Celtics player is listed on the injury report, in fact.
“Injury Report for Game 7 vs. PHI,” the Celtics announced in a message posted to the team’s official social media. “No injuries to report.”
Tatum went back to the Celtics locker room with about four minutes remaining in the third quarter in Philadelphia on Thursday, in a game that the Celtics ultimately lost 106-93. According to Celtics Blog reporter Noa Dalzell, Tatum went to the locker room with a team trainer.
When he returned, he iced his left leg, the opposite leg from the one that suffered an Achilles tear nearly one year ago, an injury that caused Tatum to miss the first 63 games of the Celtics’ season.
Tatum then rode a stationary bike in the area of the Celtics bench and never reentered the game.
Tatum Insists He Is Not Injured
After the game, both Tatum and Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla indicated that there was nothing wrong with the leg.
“My leg was just a little stiff when I came out in the third quarter. But just kind of assessing the moment like the game was a little out of reach. We took the starters out,” Tatum told reporters, as quoted by MassLive. “It was my other leg. Not the one I injured last year. I wasn’t like overly concerned.”
Mazzulla after the game insisted that Tatum was not injured, and when asked about his star’s status for Game 7, the fourth-year head coach said simply, “He’ll play.”
Tatum’s absence from the Celtics injury report would indicate that the team and its medical staff take Tatum’s word that his “stiff” leg did not represent an underlying injury of any kind. If Tatum was injured, he would appear on the injury report with a designation of “questionable,” “probable” or “out.”
But other observers are not as sure whether Tatum should play in Game 7, including a former New England Patriots player who once suffered a calf injury himself.
Former Patriots Player Warns Tatum
Speaking on the ESPN program Get Up Friday morning, former Patriots offensive lineman Damien Woody, who played on the Patriots’ Super Bowl-winning teams in the 2001 and 2003 seasons, said that Tatum must approach the calf injury with extreme caution.
“I think you gotta be very careful if you’re Jayson Tatum,” Woody said on the ESPN broadcast. “I’ve experienced something like this. I had a lower leg injury, my calf, and I had surgery on it. I came back earlier than I should have. The game I came back, it was a playoff game against the Indianapolis Colts, and I tore my Achilles. All because I was overcompensating for the prior injury that I had.”
Calf strains are generally believed to be precursors to Achilles tendon injuries in athletes. Calf injuries are on the rise during this NBA season. Data compiled by injury expert Jeff Stotts showed that in just the first 20 games of the season, NBA players suffered 25 calf strains, compared to just 18 in the previous year.
Celtics Make Jayson Tatum Injury Announcement Before Game 7 vs 76ers