Jarred Vanderbilt has continued his rehab this season as he vies to return from multiple foot offseason foot surgeries that have kept him out for the entirety of this season. The lengthy, high-energy wing has been sidelined since last season’s game in Boston in February when he was injured near halftime.
We recently learned that runway for a return has gotten a little bit longer with the team releasing an update that Vanderbilt is dealing with knee effusion and his intended return date will now be early January, though to be fair, we never had a timeline in the first place so this may or may not be longer than anticipated internally.
So what is knee effusion, why might it occur during a ramp-up and what does it mean for Vanderbilt’s recovery? Is it something like last season with Gabe Vincent, who was listed as out for knee effusion and ended up missing the entire season?
I explained all that in the following video.
On the outside looking in, there is a lot of information that we do not know and that information gets even more hazy when it comes to the complexity of rehab and medical decision-making.
Therefore, although this effusion may not be ideal and nothing about his extended absence has been ideal, the key to assessing his timeline and return will be looking out for when he’s able to return to higher intensity activities, particularly on the floor, and then how he responds to that. That response will dictate if he can move ahead or not.
As always, I will keep you updated on that as we learn more.
Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT has a doctorate in physical therapy from Northern Arizona University, and runs his own in-person and onlinesports medicine and performance business, 3CB Performance, in West LA and Valencia, CA and partners withQuantum Performancein which he further combines hismovement expertiseandfitness trainingbackground to rehab & train elite athletes.
He also works at a hospital — giving him experience with patients in the immediate healthcare setting and neurological patients (post stroke, post brain injury) — and has been practicing for over 5 years. Brar is additionally training at UCLA’s mindful awareness research center (MARC), has a background in youth basketball coaching and analyzes theLakersfrom a medical and skills perspective for Silver Screen and Roll and onhis own YouTube Channel. You can follow him on Twitter at@3cbPerformance.