Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin has a staph infection in his right elbow and will undergo surgery on Monday.
The team announced on Sunday that Griffin will be out at least through the All-Star break, at which point he will be re-evaluated. Griffin has had his elbow drained multiple times during the season to deal with bursitis. The most recent procedure was on Feb. 2.
“You could tell when you something is infected, you can just look at it,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said Sunday. “With a bursa sac, it could just be that too, but it just didn’t look right. (Clippers trainer Jasen Powell) caught that and sent him early enough — thank goodness.”
Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.com reports that Griffin could be out from anywhere between two and six weeks.
“It could be serious, it shouldn’t be, but you have to be very careful with that injury,” Rivers said. “It’s the unknown. With a sprained ankle, you know 10 days. But with infections, they’re infections and you just have to be very careful. You cannot mess around with it.”
Griffin is the Clippers’ leading scoring with 22.5 points per game. He is also averaging 7.5 rebounds and a career-high 5.1 assists.
We have seen some truly disgusting staph infections in the past, so hopefully Griffin’s was caught early enough. The Clippers need him to have a speedy recovery in order to keep pace in the Western Conference, where they currently hold the No. 6 seed.
