Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic seeks to do whatever necessary to speed up his injury rehab.
Doncic, 27, has reportedly jetted off to Spain in hopes of pursuing specialized treatment for a Grade 2 hamstring strain, which he incurred in the Lakers’ 43-point loss to the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder last Thursday.
Doncic will reportedly be sidelined for the remainder of the regular season, and his return timeline beyond that has not been made official.
Injuries of this severity typically take at least a month to recover from. Denver Nuggets star Peyton Watson is currently recovering from the same injury. He sustained it earlier in the season and came back only to reaggravate it and be sidelined a second time. That is the kind of risk Doncic is facing.
GettyLuka Doncic incurred a Grade 2 hamstring strain last Thursday.
NBA stars seeking medical attention overseas is not unprecedented. Lakers icon Kobe Bryant made several trips to Germany over the latter stages of his professional career in hopes of resolving knee trouble. Even LeBron James, Doncic’s teammate, credited a German doctor for correcting a foot injury he sustained a few seasons ago.
With the playoffs marching closer, Doncic is hoping he can speed up his recovery enough to get back on the court for Los Angeles’ first round series.
Luka Doncic injury recovery takes turn as he seeks stem cell therapy
Doncic is dealing with an incredibly tricky soft-tissue injury. A hamstring injury of any variety is often challenging to carefully dissect and properly treat.
According to the L.A. Times, which interacted with primary care sports medicine specialist Kenton Fibel to break down the specialized treatment Doncic is seeking, the Lakers star can receive biologic injections that can speed up the recovery of injured tissue. Fibel stated Ultrasound-guided platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections and stem cell injections are typical for treating injuries like the one to Doncic.
The Times wrote: “The biologic injections can speed up healing of injured tissue. PRP injections use the natural growth and anti-inflammatory factors in platelets to promote healing while stem cells harvested from a patient’s bone marrow or adipose tissue similarly help with the regeneration and turnover of the healing tissue into normal muscle tendon tissue, Fibel said.”
It is unknown how many treatments Doncic will undergo or how long he plans to stay abroad. With the playoffs set to tip off in less than two weeks, one would have to imagine Doncic has to move quickly if he intends to return to the court before the Lakers’ season is at risk of ending.
L.A. deals with rough reality just as promising season began to unfold
Los Angeles was riding the high of highs just a few days ago.
The team had a slim-but-palpable grasp of the third-seed and Doncic was rounding into legitimate MVP form. The 27-year-old Lakers star assembled a majestic stretch of basketball over the last two months, especially in March, where he scored a total of 600 points, the most in a single month since 2019. Only James Harden and Michael Jordan have registered more points in a single month in NBA history.
With Doncic sidelined indefinitely, the Lakers are left with no choice but to gameplan without him and figure out a postseason blueprint. The franchise has lost Austin Reaves as well. He will also be out indefinitely with a strain injury.
More news about Doncic’s treatment(s) in Spain should be learned over the coming days or weeks. In the meantime, fans are hoping for the best-case return scenario.
Luka Doncic Injury: Doctor Explains How Lakers Star Can Return Much Sooner With Special Injections