Joel Embiid is having a fantastic season carrying the Philadelphia 76ers, being their leader in points per game while his team is ruling the Eastern Conference. Or at least, he was enjoying it, until a new injury left him out for a couple of weeks.
On the 76ers' win over Washington Wizards on Friday, March 12, the Cameroonian suffered a bone bruise on his left knee after a horrible fall in a dunk attempt which scared everyone watching. Obviously, it looked like a serious injury from the very first moment, but MRI showed there was no structural damage.
The NBA All-Star, unfortunately, has been through painful moments throughout his entire career. Luckily this time he won't be out of the court for too much time, as it was reported that he would miss only two or three weeks. It's still a lot of time for the 76ers without their great player, but it could have been worse. His injury history was full of moments like this one.
Embiid's injuries during his NBA career
Even before being drafted in 2014, the center underwent surgery for a broken bone in his right foot which would rule him out for about four or six months. He didn't even play in that first season in Philadelphia and his recovery had a setback as well.
In August 2015, he had to undergo another surgery which again sidelined him for the entire season. Embiid had to wait two seasons to have his breakthrough in the NBA, two years later since he was drafted. He started in a good way, giving hope to Philadelphia. But bad luck continued after him as at the beginning of 2017 he suffered a torn meniscus which didn't seem to require surgery at first, but later MRI revealed he would miss the rest of the campaign.
During a successful 2017/18 season, where he was called up to the NBA All-Star game for the first time, an orbital fracture on Embiid's left eye required surgery and left him out for two weeks, including the first playoff games. On 2018/19, he suffered a sore left knee before having more problems later. Embiid couldn't play for about 14 games and when the playoffs came he had to deal with flu and illness.
These, however, are only a few of the many setbacks that Joel Embiid has suffered throughout his NBA career. The 76ers superstar had almost 49 issues that ruled him out to play during the last years, where he overcame the obstacles to become one of the greatest players in the league. Despite his latest injury, Embiid's season places him as an MVP contender, as he leads the 76ers in PPG averaging 29.9.
