Love set to have arthroscopic knee surgery this week.
In a season that never really started for Minnesota Timberwolves star forward Kevin Love, it has now been officially announced he will miss the last week of the NBA regular season.
Despite being out of the play-off picture and having little to return for, it was expected, or at least hoped, that Love would return to play some part of the season.
Having been absent due to a troublesome broken hand, which he re-injured during the year, it is now the 24-year-old’s knee that will sideline him for the rest of the campaign.
“I think he feels very poorly about this year,” Timberwolves president of basketball operations David Kahn said in a press conference on Monday night, as reported by ESPN.
“It’s been, frankly, a lost season for him. He’s already said that, at least in part, to me. He’s very hopeful he has a huge off season. He very much feels he wants to make amends for what happened this year,” he added.
Love had a break-out season last year, and went on to help Team USA to Olympic gold in London last summer. Having signed a big new contract extension, there was great optimism in Minnesota.
However, he was dealt a huge blow after breaking his hand shortly before the start of the campaign. Having returned ahead of schedule, Love struggled with his shooting game and 18 games later was again sidelined but this time required surgery.
During his efforts to remain in shape whilst allowing the hand to heal, Love’s knee has now become the latest headache, but with just a handful of games remaining his presence would have failed to have had much of an impact regardless.
Having averaged 18.3 points and 14 rebounds this year, he will now be hoping for an injury-free off season in order to prepare for a big year next season as he looks to make up for lost time.
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