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Joel Embiid finally made it onto the court this year for the Philadelphia 76ers, and he was a revelation, putting up 20.2 points, 7.8 rebounds, and 2.5 blocks per game while almost single-handedly turning the Sixers into a team no one wanted to play. His season was once again cut short by injury, however, as he suffered a torn meniscus. Initially, however, it was not expected to require surgery.

But Wednesday, the team announced that injury-riddled young phenom will undergo surgery to repair the torn meniscus in his left knee. 

ESPN’s Marc Stein reported that, that the reason for the change in the plan, is a new scan of Embiid’s knee showed the tear was worse than initially thought:

The Sixers initially hoped that surgery would not be necessary on the knee injury but a recent scan revealed “a more pronounced tear,” according to one source close to the situation.

Sources told ESPN.com that Embiid and the Sixers have been extensively exploring treatment options in the wake of a partially torn meniscus and bone bruise in Embiid’s left knee that he suffered in a January practice.

A recovery timetable won’t be established, sources said, until after the procedure.

An interesting thing to note, is that Embiid’s injury occurred during the Jan. 20 game against the Portland Trail Blazers, not during practice, but he continued to play until Jan. 27. 

While the recovery timeline won’t be established until the Sixers make a final decision, there could be a scenario where Embiid is healthy by the start of next season. According to the University of Washington, after meniscus surgery, “Physical therapy is useful to regain full function of the knee, which occurs on average 4-5 months after surgery.” 

A four-to-five-month recovery period would have him getting healthy right around September. Again, that is if everything goes smoothly, which has certainly not been the case with Embiid and his injuries. In addition, even if everything goes well, and Embiid is 100 percent healthy come September and the start of training camp, this is still a tough blow for the big man, who will have lost another entire summer in which he could have been developing his game.