All the Washington Wizards want for Christmas is for their players to get healthy. The Wizards have been bitten by the injury bug all season long and several key players have missed significant time.
Bradley Beal is dealing with a leg injury, Otto Porter has a bruised left thigh, Alan Anderson hasn't played after having left ankle surgey in the offseason, Nene is struggling with a calf injury and Gary Neal's sore back forced him out of Monday's game against the Sacramento Kings. That's five players on the Wizards' roster currently injured, and that's not counting the Wizards' most important player, John Wall, who is apparently playing through his own ankle sprain.
It is unclear when Wall injured his right ankle but according to him, it can't get worse so he is playing through it.
From CSNmidatlantic.com's J. Michael:
"All my trainers know what it is. All I know it's a real, real bad sprain," Wall, who had an MRI on Thursday after the Wizards returned from a four-game road swing, told CSNmidatlantic.com before Monday's game when he set a career high with 19 assists vs. the Sacramento Kings. "I've sprained it like five, six games in a row so it wasn't getting no better.
"A high ankle sprain. I probably should take time off but when we start getting a couple guys back I'll see how it feels and make a decision."
"We only got eight, nine people going through stuff," Wall said of his high right ankle sprain. "It's a fat ass sprain."
"It can't get any worse," Wall said of the ankle. "It's just getting swollen. I'm just getting a lot of treatment on it and trying to take time off when I can, like practice, resting."
"If I was in jeopardy I'd be out," Wall said. "My coach, my teammates understand I'll play through anything."
Wall has played through injuries before. In last year's playoffs he returned early from a broken wrist, and at the moment, besides his ankle, he is also dealing with bruised ribs and a hip injury. Despite all this, Wall had one of his best games of the season on Monday, leading the Wizards past the Kings by recording a career-high 19 assists to go along with 12 points and four steals.
The Wizards would be a mess without Wall. Heck, they're not far from a mess with him. With a third of their roster injured, the Wizards just can't afford Wall to miss any games if they want to get back into real thich of the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Of course this is not a great long-term solution for Wall, to keep playing on a bunch of bum parts, but at least he will get a two days of rest around Christmas.
