Blazers’ Collins Progressing Through Injury Rehab, No Timeline in Place

Trail Blazers big man Zach Collins provided an update regarding his injury rehabilitation during a meeting with the media over Zoom session earlier this week. Collins, who exited last year’s bubble competition with an ankle injury, is still sidelined after that same injury required a second surgery.

NBC Sports Northwest’s Jamie Hudson highlighted Collins’ comments on Wednesday. According to the former Gonzaga standout, the second ankle surgery was triggered by the fracture increasing in size. Collins briefly explained the difference between the two ankle surgeries he underwent.

“This operation was a little bit more in-depth, so we just thought it would be better to put a cast on to really just immobilize everything and get everything set before we start doing things.”

Collins continued by detailing the thought process that went into the second surgery.

Obviously, doing surgery again is never… You want to avoid surgery at all cost, but, again, it was a bigger fracture. And this time, we’ve consulted a lot of doctors and we consulted a bunch of specialists about what the best route would be and everyone was in agreement that it was surgery.

In terms of getting back on the floor, Collins explained that there is not a timeline in place for his return.

I don’t really have a timeline set in stone. We’re not really putting a hard date on it yet. It’s so early right now with everything that’s going on. We have to see how everything progresses week-by-week.

Along with that update from Collins, The Athletic’s Jason Quick suggested that the 23-year-old big fella might be out for four to six months as he recovers.

Collins, who was selected with the No. 10 pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, has appeared in 154 regular season games (12 starts) with the Blazers. Last season, he averaged 7.0 points and 6.3 rebounds per game in 11 outings.

You can read the full story from Hudson at NBC Sports Northwest.