Greg Oden injury would require microfracture surgery

Greg Oden injury would require microfracture surgery

Greg Oden, the oft-injured former number one pick of the Portland Trailblazers, will be undergoing microfracture surgery to fix his left patella.  The big man will miss this season and will try to rehabilitate his knee to play again. The news was another devastating blow the Blazers and Oden, who has played sparingly since he was drafted by Portland out of Ohio State in 2007. He also did not play during his rookie season because of right knee injury. The team announced on Wednesday that the surgery will be performed on Friday in Vail, Colorado.

Oden’s left knee became painful two weeks ago and an MRI confirmed the damaged cartilage. Blazers trainer Jay Jensen described their reaction to the results. “We sat there and it was like we’d been kicked in the stomach. It felt like hearing someone close to us has died.”

The 7-footer was playing well last December, with averages of 11.7 points, 8.8 boards and 2.4 blocks, when he broke his kneecap in a game against the Houston Rockets.

The misfortune of Oden has been compared to another Blazer center Sam Bowie, who had to retire early because of successive injuries and did not live up the lofty expectations of being selected ahead of the legendary Michael Jordan in the 1984 NBA draft.

The Blazers committed the same mistake, picking Oden over Kevin Durant, whose early career in Oklahoma has been praised while Oden has been labelled a bust.

Blazers coach Nate McMillan was disappointed with the news. “Some things you just can’t explain,” he said.

Posted by Andre Monohan on Thursday November 18 2010, 2:23 PM EST. Ref: AP. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0