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Przybilla needs another knee surgery
By J.A. Adande
ESPN.com
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Portland Trail Blazers center Joel Przybilla, already out for the season with a ruptured tendon in his right knee, re-injured the knee while slipping in the shower Saturday and will require surgery again this week, the team said.
Przybilla
Przybilla was at his home in Milwaukee when he injured the knee. He flew to Portland on Saturday and underwent a magnetic resonance imaging test, which revealed a tear of the patellar tendon he first injured in a game at Dallas on Dec. 22.
It fits right into this season, in which the Trail Blazers have missed a combined 269 games because of injuries entering Sunday's game against the Denver Nuggets. They have been particularly hard hit the center position. Starter Greg Oden suffered a potential season-ending knee injury himself, although he recently told reporters he hopes to return before the playoffs. Marcus Camby, acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Clippers, missed Sunday's game with a sore left ankle.
"It's been that type of season where we've had this happen and just have to keep going and moving along," said Portland coach Nate McMillan, who missed four games himself with a ruptured Achilles tendon.
The latest injury to Przybilla, who has a player option at $6 million for 2010-11, puts his availability at the start of the next season into question. The timetable for return from the original injury was six to eight months. McMillan did not provide an estimate for when Przybilla would be available again.
"The doctors are right now thinking about what to do," McMillan said. "They will be able to give us a better read on what his time frame is after the surgery."
J.A. Adande is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4974921
