http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/6503064.html
Rockets center Yao Ming’s left foot injury could be severe enough to be season ending or even career-threatening depending on the success of potential treatments chosen, Rockets team physician Tom Clanton said Monday.
"At this point, the injury has the potential for him missing this next season and could be career threatening," Clanton said. "One of the things we are trying to get is a consensus opinion on that, to make certain there is no option we are overlooking that would provide an earlier return or would be an option for treatment that he would prefer rather than doing additional surgery."
Clanton, responding to a story on Yahoo Sports that reported that the Rockets and Yao representatives are concerned Yao will never play again, said that Yao could choose to try again to immobilize the foot in the hopes that the hairline fracture of the tarsal navicular bone would heal on its own, as several of his previous bone injuries have and doctors expected this time.
"We are not going to comment," Rockets general manager Daryl Morey said, "until we have all the facts."
Yao is scheduled to meet with several specialists to consider a wide variety of options. Clanton declined to say what option he expects to recommend.
Because Yao is entirely asymptomatic, there remains a hope that additional time in a boot or cast could allow the bone to heal on its own.
"I don’t think that is necessarily a longshot," Clanton said. "It takes a lot of time.
It may be best to take more time (immobilizing the foot). Sometimes that is the best option."
The surgical treatment options could include placing a pin inside the foot, a bone graft or even realigning the foot to operate differently. Cleveland Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas underwent similar procedures, reducing his high arch to a flatter foot position, an option that could be considered for Yao, Clanton said, though his arch is not as high as Ilgauskas’ was.
"It’s more that’s what we’re hoping to avoid, but that is certainly a realistic situation given his injury and the way the bone looked on the CT scan," Clanton said. "The fact he is having no symptoms gives us reason for optimism."
Yao had a pin inserted in the foot in February 2006 and was ready to play in the Olympics in less than six months, and in 77 regular-season games last season. Clanton, however, said there is concern that a more extreme procedure might be warranted, even though his current injury is considered less severe.
Clanton expected the hairline fracture that ended Yao’s season, his fourth bone injury in the past four seasons, to have healed when Yao returned from China for a CT scan last week.
Instead, it not only healed, but Clanton said it grew worse. He said doctors will also try to determine whether Yao has suffered a loss of blood supply in the area, causing the injury to heal more slowly.
"The hairline fracture that is present in the previous X-rays shows evidence it has not healed and has extended across the bone," Clanton said.
"At this stage he is having no symptoms or physical signs. He has no tenderness, no swelling, no redness. When he came back in, he was feeling like everything was perfect, and he would start rehabilitation and get ready to play. The findings on the CT were shocking for him and for us.
"Sometimes the findings on an X-ray or CT don’t necessarily mean that is exactly what you treat. You don’t treat a CT scan; you treat a patient. We are looking for every reason to teat this on clinical findings, but don’t want to put him at risk for a greater fracture.
"What we are looking at is a discrepancy in the clinical findings on him and what he tells us, and the findings on the diagnostic imaging studies that tell us what the bone looks like."
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