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The Trail Blazers have endured a litany of injuries to start the 2019-20 NBA season, further compounding the absence of Jusuf Nurkic’s absence. At the top of that list: Zach Collins’ should injury that he suffered against the Mavericks. Following a dislocation of his left shoulder, Collins underwent surgery to repair his labrum.
In an effort to get a better understanding of the surgery, Portland Tribune’s Kerry Eggers spoke with Dr. Joshua Dines, a sports medicine surgeon at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.
Dr. Dines did not carry out the surgery, but is familiar with the procedure. In terms of Collins’ return to the court, Dines detailed the typical timeline attached to the surgery.
“There are subtleties with each case,” he said. “But with the typical recovery, the first four to six weeks go slow, with gentle movements (allowed). By three months, the patient feels 75 percent better. Between four and six months, he can return to full activity and get to the point where he feels like he didn’t have surgery.”
As far as a return to active duty, “four months is on the short end of that,” Dines said. “I would typically wait five to six months before clearing somebody for full activity.”
Dines also explained that electing to surgery at this point in his career was a wise move for Collins.
“He’s young,” Dines said. “After it pops out the first time, the risk of it happening again is about 90 percent, especially when you’re playing a contact sport. Each time you reinjure it, the tear can get worse, and you’re heading down a bad path. That’s something you want to prevent with a relatively straightforward procedure.
”(With the surgery) you’ve reduced the risk of it happening again to about five percent. You’ve mitigated that risk significantly.”
The Blazers selected Collins out of Gonzaga with the No. 10 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. The 21-year-old big man holds career averages of 5.7 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.
You can read the full story from Eggers at the Portland Tribune.