” A day will come. I stood in the darkness of the tunnel and tried to figure out where I was going. It feels good to know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. »
Injured since November 28, Karl Anthony Towns is closing in on a comeback, almost four months after their last game, as The Athletic tells us that he could return this Wednesday night (like Anthony Edwards) against the Hawks. This would mark the end of a long journey.
“I knew from day one that the road would be long, I tore my calf at 95%”, he says to The Athleticrecalling his January remarks. “There was never really a timetable. We look on Google and it says twelve weeks. I was hoping to do less but I knew it wouldn’t be easy to come back. I was going to have to wait for it to take effect and make sure it held up. »
This was not the case since the All-Star relapsed, precisely at the end of January. The player concedes it without understatement, but without going into details either. He simply explains that he had to start all over again and that just walking was impossible.
” It was evident. We wear a protective boot one day, then another day, it’s gone, before coming back. So it’s a relapse. We can talk about it again in due time, but not for the moment. »
“We are working and we think we have made 8% progress compared to the day before. We go to see the doctors and we finally discover that it is only 2%… ”
A relapse is not uncommon during long rehabilitations, especially when it concerns the calf. Injuries in this area of the body are very often complicated to manage.
Jordan McLaughlin, touched almost at the same time as “KAT”, can attest to this. Injured in the calf, the playmaker of Minnesota had missed five games, before returning for three games. The relapse arrived and he finally spent 30 games in a row in the infirmary…
“It’s a hard and long journey”, he assures. “There are days when, when you wake up, you feel good and ready to play. We think we can resume. But we are not 100% ready. »
And returning too quickly is taking a significant risk. The proof with Kevin Durant, injured in the calf during the 2019 playoffs, returned in Game 5 of the Finals against the Raptors, and finally suffered a much more serious injury: a ruptured Achilles tendon. This terrible scenario, Karl-Anthony Towns thought about it.
“It was clearly a possibility if I returned to the courts”, he declares. “We were all worried about that. As a competitor, we want to go there, to tell ourselves that we will manage to play. With what I had, I couldn’t even try. »
So you have to be patient, even if it’s long and painful and the desire to play again is very strong.
“We are working and we think we have made 8% progress compared to the day before. We go to see the doctors and we finally find out that it’s only 2%… Damn, only 2%? I itch to play. It has been such a long time. »
| Karl Anthony Towns | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Crew | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2015-16 | MIN | 82 | 32 | 54.3 | 34.1 | 81.1 | 2.8 | 7.7 | 10.4 | 2.0 | 3.0 | 0.7 | 2.2 | 1.7 | 18.3 |
| 2016-17 | MIN | 82 | 37 | 54.2 | 36.7 | 83.2 | 3.6 | 8.7 | 12.3 | 2.7 | 2.9 | 0.7 | 2.6 | 1.3 | 25.1 |
| 2017-18 | MIN | 82 | 36 | 54.5 | 42.1 | 85.8 | 2.9 | 9.4 | 12.3 | 2.4 | 3.5 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 1.4 | 21.3 |
| 2018-19 | MIN | 77 | 33 | 51.8 | 40.0 | 83.6 | 3.4 | 9.0 | 12.4 | 3.4 | 3.8 | 0.9 | 3.1 | 1.6 | 24.4 |
| 2019-20 | MIN | 35 | 34 | 50.8 | 41.2 | 79.6 | 2.7 | 8.1 | 10.8 | 4.4 | 3.3 | 0.9 | 3.1 | 1.2 | 26.5 |
| 2020-21 | MIN | 50 | 34 | 48.6 | 38.7 | 85.9 | 2.7 | 7.9 | 10.6 | 4.5 | 3.7 | 0.8 | 3.2 | 1.1 | 24.8 |
| 2021-22 | MIN | 74 | 34 | 52.9 | 41.0 | 82.2 | 2.6 | 7.2 | 9.8 | 3.6 | 3.6 | 1.0 | 3.1 | 1.1 | 24.6 |
| 2022-23 | MIN | 21 | 34 | 50.5 | 32.5 | 88.5 | 1.7 | 6.5 | 8.2 | 5.3 | 3.9 | 0.8 | 3.1 | 0.7 | 20.8 |
| Total | 503 | 34 | 52.7 | 39.3 | 83.5 | 2.9 | 8.3 | 11.2 | 3.2 | 3.4 | 0.8 | 2.7 | 1.4 | 23.1 | |
