Kobe Bryant is set to miss around six weeks with a fracture in his left knee. His lateral tibial plateau has been fractured. The news was announced by the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday.
He suffered the injury on Tuesday night after the Lakers beat the home team, the Memphis Grizzlies, 96-92.
“All I can do is just do the work given to me. I want to get back to get back to the highest level as soon as possible”, Bryant told ESPN.
He also used Twitter to convey his emotions after suffering from fracture
#BrokenNotBeaten – Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) on Dec 19, 2013.
He would not be needing any surgery on his knee. He just needs to let the bone heal and that will take time. The injury is a huge blow the Lakers. They signed Bryant to a two-year contract for $48.5 million.
“This is just too unfortunate. I would hate to Kobe right now. He has worked very hard to get back. But, yes, he will be back in six weeks and we will deal with it and when he comes back,” Coach Mike D’Antoni said.
Bryant entered the 2013-14 season with the hope that he would be the first player to make it back to the All-Star after having ruptured his Achilles. The last time it was done was way back in the 1992-93 season by Dominique Wilkins.
“I just hyper-extended my knee. I sometimes do that”, he said.
“It is just bad luck. The doctors were sure that he had recovered from the previous injury. Yes, there was a slight risk, but we had to play him sometime or the other”, D’Antoni said.
If Bryan misses the next six weeks, the Lakers would have lost around $14.8 million this season, for the games he did not play. The money isn’t insured. It is insured only when the player misses 41 games due to the same injury.