Kevin Durant is out for the season, needs 3rd foot surgery
Last week Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti announced Kevin Durant was out "indefinitely" because of an ailing foot problem.
Friday afternoon, the Thunder announced Durant will officially be out for the season. He'll miss 4-6 months with a third foot surgery to fix the Jones fracture of his fifth metatarsal.
The team statement reads:
"The Oklahoma City Thunder released the following statement on behalf of Thunder Executive Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti regarding Kevin Durant:
'As we communicated last week, Kevin was going to use this time to engage in consultation and evaluation regarding the persistent soreness in his right foot at this stage of rehabilitation. As part of this process, Kevin and Thunder personnel traveled to two additional specialists this past week; Dr. Martin O'Malley in New York City and Dr. James Nunley at Duke University. These in-person consults were designed to further supplement the previous evaluations of Dr. Bob Anderson. Several conference calls and discussions amongst the specialist team concluded that, while the majority of the soreness in Kevin's foot was due to continued inflammation of the cuboid bone and would subside with rest, the evaluation process also determined that the Jones fracture of the fifth metatarsal, which had shown significant healing previously, was now demonstrating signs of regression.
With the focus of this process being aimed entirely on Kevin's long term health and stability, it was the consensus of the specialists team, in addition to a collective decision by Kevin, his representation and the Thunder, that to address the setback of the fracture site, a bone graft procedure would be the most proactive and recommended approach. The bone graft is the standard procedure for the five to eight percent of Jones fracture surgeries that do not initially have success or experience setbacks sometime within the recovery period. While everyone is disappointed that Kevin falls into that group, we are encouraged that the bone graft procedure has historically demonstrated long-term health and stability.
Dr. O'Malley will perform the bone graft surgery early next week in New York. He has extensive bone grafting experience amongst athletes and has been consulting on the case throughout. Kevin will miss the remainder of the 2014-15 season and is expected to return to basketball activities in four to six months.'"
The Thunder have had a brutal season dealing with injuries. Durant has only played 27 games this season, while Russell Westbrook missed the first month of the season with a broken hand. Serge Ibaka recently underwent knee surgery, causing him to miss four to six weeks for recovery, effectively ending his season.