Anthony Davis cleared to play after eye injury, but Christian Wood suffers setback

After exiting Sunday’s win over the Raptors with a left eye injury, Anthony Davis said this Tuesday that he has been cleared to play in the Lakers’ next match against the Grizzlies by his team’s medical staff. The player has been building an MVP case during the first three weeks of the 2024-25 campaign. 

“A couple scratches in my eye,” the All-Star said, as his eye still seems a bit red and clouded after Tuesday’s training drills. “But as far as the medical term and everything all that, I’m not 100% sure. But I am cleared to play.”

The player revealed that he visited an ophthalmologist first thing Monday morning as a “precautionary” measure, which was later confirmed by the press. AD had been poked in the eye by Toronto big man Jakob Poeltl halfway through the third quarter, and fell to the floor in pain right after the play.

Anthony Davis says he is cleared to play against Memphis and will not wear protective goggles pic.twitter.com/dKS8U7tK3t

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 12, 2024

Eye injuries are a sore subject for AD, as it is the second time this has happened since the spring, when he was diagnosed with corneal abrasion back in March. The purple and gold center admitted to have tried to use goggles before, as he was once seen during there 2020 NBA bubble, but decided to throw them away after “20 seconds of a game.”

“I wore goggles for three years when I was younger,” he recalled. “I just don’t want to [now], to be honest. Obviously, the doctors said I didn’t have to. … If it gets to that point where my eye doctor tells me that I need to wear them, then of course I will. But I’ve been cleared to go out and play without them.”

Anthony has been averaging 31.2 points on 57.7% shooting, 10.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 2.0 blocks and 1.3 steals per contest this present campaign. However, even though he’s ready for action, teammate Christian Wood doesn’t seem fit to play yet.

After his arthroscopic surgical procedure on his left knee in September, the Los Angeles big man has experienced soreness during his recovery process. “We’re going to scale him back,” coach JJ Redick said of Wood yesterday. “We’ll have an update in about four weeks.”

Despite AD’s absence, the Lakers locker room were impressed by Jaxson Hayes, who replaced the All-Star big man amid his eye injury

The Lakers players feared the worst, as their start center left the court with his hands in his face. However, young Jaxson Hayes quickly spinned the situation around and contributed with 12 points and 6 rebounds by the end of the game.

“I thought Jaxson was amazing tonight,” Lakers guard Austin Reaves said about Hayes’ performance. “Especially that third quarter on, I thought that he played probably one of his best games since he’s been here. Being active defensively, being a scorer in the pocket, rebounder. I thought he did a lot of really good things.”

Another who decided to take charge in AD’s absence was LeBron James, who recorded the 115th triple-double of his career, with the Lakers ending Sunday’s game on a 53-30 run during the final 17 minutes. “AD is a big-time rebounder, so I had to pick up some of the slack with the defensive rebounding,” said James, who scored 19 points, a season-high 16 assists and 10 rebounds.

“And then with AD out, I’m taking a lot of eyes (that would be on) AD, because he’s putting so much pressure on defenses this season. I take some of that responsibility as well. Something I’ve been able to do for quite a while, so it’s not hard for me to be able to tap into that, even though that’s not been my role this year so far,” he added.