De’Andre Hunter left the Hawks January 29 matchup with the Washington Wizards due to discomfort in his knee. He hasn’t played since. The second-year small forward, who is amid a breakout campaign, was later diagnosed with a torn meniscus.
According to Dr. Michael Banffy, who spoke with Sarah K. Spencer of the AJC shortly after the injury, the recovery time on meniscus injuries like this are pretty straight forward, generally between three to six weeks. Well, apparently Hunter’s issue is a little more serious. He’s already missed five weeks of action, and the Hawks announced yesterday that he is just beginning to ramp up rehabilitation activities and will be re-evaluated in two weeks. From the Hawks’ PR team:
Forward De’Andre Hunter (right knee surgery on Feb. 8) has increased his rehabilitation activities to include unrestricted weight room work and progressive court reloading. He will be reviewed on Mar. 19 and his status will be updated as appropriate.
Hunter is currently third on the Hawks in scoring, averaging 17.2 points per game on over 50% from the field. He’s established himself as one of the best second-year players in the league and is critical to Atlanta having any sort of sustained success this season.
Following back-to-back wins, the Hawks went into the All-Star Break just 1.5 games out of a playoff spot. They are just two games behind the 5th seed in the East. That’s far from impossible to overcome, but it will be much easier if Hunter can get healthy sooner rather than later.
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