This year’s #1 pick, Greg Oden, underwent arthroscopic surgery this week to identify the cause of pain in his right knee.
According to the team’s website, further damage was revealed and Oden underwent microfracture surgery to repair a small area of articular cartilage damage.
“Greg had an arthroscopy and a micro fracture surgery today,” said team physician Dr. Don Roberts, who preformed the surgery. “He was found to have articular cartilage damage in his right knee. The area of injury was not large and we were able to treat it with micro fracture, which stimulates the growth of cartilage. There are things about this that are positive for Greg. First of all he is young. The area where the damage was is small and the rest of his knee looked normal. All those are good signs for a complete recovery from micro fracture surgery.”
Obviously, this is a huge blow to the 2007-08 Trailblazers. Since Oden is so young, he has a great chance to make a full recovery. This is the same surgery that Amare Stoudemire had two years ago, so complete recovery is not unprecedented. Let’s just hope he’s able to heal quickly and get back on the court where he belongs.
