The OKC Thunder announce how serious Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s injury is

OKC Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault announced that the team’s superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s plantar fascia is actually a significant tear according to Blake Schuster of B/R. This is an update to the status of the injury which was reported earlier in the season.

In late March the Thunder said that Gilgeous-Alexander would be out for an extended period of time. However, they did not release what the actual injury was. For anyone hoping to see the star back on the court before the season ends, this is not going to happen now.

As coach Daigneault has said, this is not an injury that should be messed around with. There is a good chance that Gilgeous-Alexander will take most of the offseason to recover from this injury which is going to impact more than the OKC Thunder.

The OKC Thunder are right to exercise caution with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s injury.

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The Thunder are showing the right amount of caution with the injury. Obviously, there are skeptics around the league who will say that the Thunder shut Gilgeous-Alexander down to ensure they got the best possible draft position as the team is tanking.

However, in the offseason, Gilgeous-Alexander was due to play for Team Canada in an effort to qualify for the Olympics. This importance of his playing was further highlighted when the other member of the starting backcourt, Jamal Murray, went down with an injury as well.

Hopefully, this will have the impact of silencing those doubters as Gilgeous-Alexander is a proud Canadian. He would love nothing more than to play for his country at the pinnacle of sporting achievement, the Olympics.

He is now going to have to spend the offseason in recovery, rehabilitating this tear so that he can be back for the opening night of the 2021-22 NBA season. The Thunder will be unveiling their new top-5 draft pick then so it will be crucial to get him back on the court to develop chemistry with this future franchise cornerstone.