Chicago Bulls’ team physician said Derrick Rose could miss the entirety of next season after his surgery on Saturday. Dr. Brian Cole, who performed the surgery, said the recovery time will likely be between eight and twelve months.
“We’re at this point very optimistic. … We think of recovery as the long process that’s in stages. But the short answer is the time frame we believe an athlete of this caliber generally requires is about eight to 12 months. Sometimes shorter, sometimes longer.
“While he will be at hopefully a very high level at 12 months, it still may take slightly longer for him to be at his pre-injury level. That’s not uncommon for athletes of this caliber.”
“If you look at reasons why athletes do or do not get back to their pre-injury level of play, there’s no question that the psychological component is part of it,” Cole said. “And because we know that, that’s something we focus on.
“If you look at a typical progression, he’ll be doing basketball-specific activities very early on. And that’s just a great feedback move just to say, ‘Hey, I can do this.’ And then you do sort of non-contact, basketball-friendly activities against other people to start getting a sense of, ‘Hey, I can do this, I can trust my knee.’ And it’s this progression of low contact, high levels of contact in competition, pre-playing a real game that they get the feedback and say, ‘Hey, I can really do this.’ … He will learn to be able to trust his knee.”
Dr. Cole did say, however, Rose is “doing great” and the surgery went “extremely well” which is a positive in this unfortunate series of events.
The center-piece of the Bulls went down April 28th in the first game of the Bulls’ series against the Philadelphia 76ers. Without Rose, the Bulls were unable to advance in the playoffs making them just the fifth one-seeded team to not advance past an eighth seed.
Bulls’ GM Gar Forman did say that in the time he spent with Rose, “his spirits seemed really good” and “he’s determined to attack this rehab.” There is no doubt this is a huge blow to the Bulls’ future and it will be interesting seeing how Forman handles potentially not having his star for the entire 2012-13 season.
via ESPN
