After "a long, long fucking two months," Boston Celtics' All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving says his left knee infection is behind him and he expects to be fully ready for training camp.
Speaking at the USA Basketball men's national team practice on Thursday in Las Vegas, Irving revealed some details about the knee injury which required season-ending surgery in April to remove two screws from his left patella, after the Celtics revealed a bacterial infection was discovered at the site of the screws.
Irving, 26, explained that the infection discovered on the metal wiring and screws in his knee could have evolved into a staph infection had it not been caught and treated early enough. In order to combat the infection, a catheter was inserted into a vein going into his heart, according to ESPN.
"I mean, you ask anybody with an infection, they will probably try to downplay it," Irving said when asked how scary the infection was, according to ESPN. "It's a personal thing because your body is going through it. I was fighting an infection in a specific place in your body where you can't necessarily reach with your hands. You got to go in there and kind of see what's going on, and what happened for me was, the metal wiring and the screws that I had in there, the infection was on that, so I had to remove that and then be on antibiotics for about two months.
"It could have evolved to staph, but good thing we caught it early. I am glad that is done. That was a long, long fucking two months."
"For the last two months, it was a long, rigorous process, trying to get that infection out and make sure I was safe," Irving said. "And then rehabbing from there. So I have been rehabbing probably for the last month and some change where I can actually do something without much restrictions."
ESPN reports that Kyrie went through one-on-one drills with his trainer Thursday, but was in street clothes when he attended the USA Basketball men's national team practice. He says he will "easily" be ready for the start of Celtics training camp.
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