Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry suffered ligament damage in his left leg after a collision on the court during Saturday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks and is expected to be sidelined for a number of weeks due to the injury.
Curry was diagnosed with partial tears to his superior tibiofibular ligament and interosseous membrane in his left leg and a lower-leg contusion after the mishap in the third quarter.
The Warriors released a statement on their social media channels about the 34-year-old point guard confirming the injury and added that “additional clarity on a potential timeline” for Curry’s return to the game “will be established in the coming days.”
Brian Sutterer MD, who has spoken to Newsweek previously about sports injuries, shared a video on Twitter in which he explained what happened to Curry and how the injury has affected his leg.
Presenting alongside footage of Curry’s collision, which caused the injury, and a graphic of the knee and leg, Sutterer said: “The first injury is a sprain of the superior tibiofibular ligament.
“If we zoom in on this outer portion of the knee, there is actually a joint at the head of the fibular and the tibia or the shin bone. To maintain the stability of that joint there are a number of small ligaments.”
Sutterer continued: “Of course, ligaments are named for the bones they connect so the tibiofibular ligaments help to support and stabilize this small joint between the head of the fibular and the tibia.
“The ACL ligament sits right on top of those but there are all kinds of small ligaments that help anchor the fibular head onto the tibia.”
Explaining the specifics of Curry’s injury, Sutterer said: “Injury number one is a sprain of the small little ligaments specifically the superior or the upper ones of that joint.
“As Curry’s leg is struck it lightly contacted the head of the fibular which is going to push the fibular forward, spraining those ligaments anchoring the fibular to the shin bone.”
He then went on to explain what else happened to Curry’s leg in the collision.
“The next part of this is an injury to the interosseous ligament. The interosseous ligament is a thick band of connective tissue that connects the fibular to the tibia and runs down basically, the entirety of the lower leg,” he said.
“Same sort of thing that when the ligament is up by the head of the fibular and tibia sprain. If you take the tibia bone and you push it forward really aggressively you can also sprain that thick band of connective tissue holding the fibular to the tibia.”
There was a third effect of the collision on the court, Sutterer said.
“The final part of this is the contusions, specifically to the muscles that overlay on the outside of the fibular on the lower leg to provide various functions to our foot and ankle.”
With the Warriors being vague about how long Curry will be sidelined, Sutterer suggested that it would be “weeks rather than months” for his recovery but admitted that there are not many cases in sports to compare this injury with to ascertain a time for Curry’s comeback.
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