“Lakers star center Dwight Howard will not play in Friday’s game against the Timberwolves and will return to Los Angeles to undergo the increasingly popular platelet-rich plasma therapy on his ailing right shoulder, the team announced.
The team said that Dr. Steven Yoon will perform the procedure Saturday. The procedure consists of centrifuging the patient’s blood to isolate platelets and growth factors. The mix is injected into the injured area to accelerate healing. There are mixed reports on the efficacy of the treatment.
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After the procedure, Howard will rejoin the team in Detroit. He is listed as day to day for Sunday’s game against the Pistons and the remaining four games on the current road trip.”
As for when Dwight will return to the court, Mike D’Antoni said he doesn’t know when Howard will play, only that he’ll play when he feels no pain; although the injury will continue to linger for the remainder of the season:
“He said there was pain in there, so he’ll play when there’s no pain.”
I don’t think they know only because you just don’t know when the pain goes away. Now, he said it felt a little bit like the first time (he hurt it), which leads to three games, but I don’t think he knows. I don’t think anybody knows.
He’ll be reexamined every hour almost, every day,” D’Antoni said. “We’ll do treatment on it and whatever it takes to get him back as quick as we can … We won’t shut him down. Even if we shut him down (the injury) is always going to be there. Even if we shut him down for two months, it’s still going to be there. The next time he gets hit, it’s going to hurt him. It’s a pain thing.”
This is definitely not good news for the Lakers as the team has suffered an array of setbacks from the start of the season–many injury-driven ones. Additionally, the team had just begun to play together and with a new sense of urgency.
Hopefully, the platelet-rich plasma therapy can help aide Howard’s ailing shoulder (torn labrum) in the process.