John Wall's injury remains a mystery, with several various ailments combining into one thing that's kept him off the court a decent amount of the season. As Michael Lee mentioned over the weekend, Wall doesn't have knee tendonitis. Instead, he has a bone bruise of some kind under the kneecap. As such, he shut himself down for at least this week's games, and going to start working with a personal trainer to help him overcome all the little aches and pains he's suffered this year.
Wall opened up a little bit more about his injury in an exclusive interview with Chris Miller of Comcast SportsNet last night. The video itself is here and here, but here's a transcript of some key remarks Wall made during it.
Among the key points:
- Wall has a sprained foot, a bruised shin and a bruised kneecap.
- Wall played hurt in the loss at Chicago and the win over Philadelphia at home earlier in the year. He also played through pain in that loss to the Knicks, something he regrets doing.
- He's not sure when he's coming back, but he estimates it'll be when he's "85 to 90 percent" healthy.
"Mentally, it's frustrating. I haven't missed this many games thus far in my career since when I was younger. Everybody thought it was tendonitis, but it's not. It's a sprained foot, and it takes time. [I also] have two bruises -- I got a bruised shin, and I got a bruised kneecap, so it's frustrating to not be playing."
Wall on anyone who criticizes him for not toughening it out and playing through pain
"I think I proved people wrong. I proved to people that I'm tough and willing to fight through injuries. I sprained my foot in the Chicago game and came back and played, even though I was still hurting. Even though I wasn't 100 percent, I came back in the Philly game and the Atlanta game. Some games I didn't play good, but I showed heart playing through injuries. At the same time, I got to look and see I have a long career ahead of me if I take care of my body. I just wanted to clear it up with people that I can play through tendonitis. It's painful, but I played through it in college and I played through it in my last year of high school. That wasn't really the problem."
Wall on whether he's set a timetable for him to return
"No, not really. Most of the time, people that play in the NBA, they're not always 100 percent. They got a little something with them. I feel like I won't be back 100 percent for a while, but I feel like if I'm back and can do the things I'd do at 100 percent, even if it's at 85 percent or 90 percent, then I feel like that's the time to come back. But there's no point in me coming back and making myself look worse. I feel like the New York game showed that I should have shut it down before the, because I couldn't really run and move like I wanted to."