Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James played through a foot injury during Sunday’s win over the Dallas Mavericks that initially appeared minor, but he is now expected to be sidelined for an extended period of time.
LeBron will likely miss at least 2-3 weeks, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. The 38-year-old had already been playing through a right foot injury that he suffered in January.
“LeBron James is expected to miss an indefinite amount of time… I’m told likely at least 2 or 3 weeks” @ShamsCharania with the latest on LeBron’s foot injury #RunItBack pic.twitter.com/nk2BpXx0Cd
— FanDuel TV (@FanDuelTV) February 28, 2023
“LeBron James is expected to miss an indefinite amount of time. It will be an extended period that he will be out. I’m told likely at least two or three weeks,” Charania said Tuesday. “I’m told he initially hurt that right foot in January. He was faced with a decision at that point to shut it down for an amount of time or keep playing on it. He decided because of where the Lakers were in January that he would keep playing on it.”
James had also been dealing with a left foot injury, so all of that may play a role in determining when he is cleared to return.
After he went down in the third quarter of L.A.’s 111-108 win over the Mavericks, LeBron appeared to say that he heard a pop in his foot. He remained in the game, however, and took only a brief rest in the fourth quarter while helping the Lakers mount a comeback.
LeBron was then spotted walking with a pronounced limp after the game.
The Lakers have won three straight to improve to 29-32 on the year. They are just a half-game out of the 10th seed in the Western Conference with 21 games remaining. It sounds like they will have to play most of those games without their best player.
