Marcin Gortat missed Monday's game due to a suspected infection in his knee

Apparently, the nasty, bloody cut Marcin Gortat got on his ear on Saturday was not the worst injury he suffered in Orlando.

Gortat was a surprise scratch from Monday's game with what a knee injury. After the game, Randy Wittman explained it wasn't your typical knee injury. Jorge Castillo of the Washington Post has more:

"We don’t know," Wizards Coach Randy Wittman said. "We got to get him to the hospital when we land and give him some IVs and try to get the fluids running through him. I don’t know if it’s a staph infection. He had a small cut on his knee from diving on the floor and something got in there. It swelled up and he had a high temperature last night so we know it’s an infection of some type."

As it turns out, the cut on Gortat's ear was much less serious than one he suffered earlier in the game, according to J. Michael of CSN Mid-Atlantic:

Gortat cut his knee in Saturday's game at the Orlando Magic, a 105-99 win, and then he had several collisions with the knee that aggravated it. He also had to leave the game late in the fourth quarter and didn't return because of an elbow to the head from Nic Vucevic that caused a bad cut on his ear that wouldn't stop bleeding.

[...]

"I woke up after the game with Orlando with a swollen knee," Gortat said. "After 24 hours of different treatments and pills and different stuff they decided I can't go. From a physical standpoint, I wasn't ready to go."

From the sounds of things in both reports, it looks like the Wizards are optimistic the medicine Gortat is on now should help clear up whatever is in his knee and get him back on the court soon, but in terms of bizarre injuries, this certainly has to be up there, even for the Wizards.

Washington played quite well without Gortat on Monday, but they're better equipped to survive against the Bulls without Gortat than most other teams because they could play big and not get burned by it. If Gortat misses Wednesday's game, it could still work out for them because the Bucks are another team that doesn't have a lot of stretch players who can force guys like Nene, Drew Gooden and DeJuan Blair out to perimeter, and the Bucks just haven't been that good. But if Gortat's is still on the shelf by this weekend, when they have to face the Pacers, Celtics, and Blazers in a four-day stretch, his absence will certainly make it hard for the Wizards to stay competitive.