Mavericks’ Kyrie Irving struggles in his return from 5-game injury absence

After a five-game absence, Kyrie Irving returned to action and scored 11 points against the Nuggets this Tuesday night. Despite making his way back to the NBA courts, the player visibly struggled and later confirmed that he was diagnosed with a bulging disk in his lower back. 

This means that the Mavericks medical staff will have to be very careful while managing his health problems, despite the fact that his lumbar sprain doesn’t need to undergo surgery. “The last almost two weeks have sucked,” he said after shooting on 4-of-18 shooting in a 118-99 defeat to Denver.

“I’m going to be real with you,” he promised. “I haven’t really had any back troubles before. So when I got the MRI back and found out it was a bulging disk, I spoke to a few experts, a few doctors, spoke to some of my teammates, spoke to some of the guys on our coaching staff as well, who have dealt with surgery or dealt with just the maintenance of that. It’s on and off.”

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Kyrie then added: “I just got to be very smart about it, but I’m grateful I got a chance to go out and get some minutes. Tonight really felt like I just hopped off the couch and decided to play an NBA game tonight.”

Before ending his postgame interview, Irving revealed that he intends to play in the second game of Dallas’ back-to-back match on the road against New Orleans this Wednesday night. The Mavs need their guard as hi co-star Luka Doncic is sidelined and expected to be reevaluated during the last week of January.

Unfortunately for the Texan team, they lost another starter last night when Dereck Lively II sprained his right ankle during the first quarter. The sophomore center was ruled out for the rest of the match minutes later and we are yet to know the gravity of his injury.

By the end of the night, Kyrie gave more details on his back problems, saying that he has been able to alleviate the pain with medicine. “It’s a bulging disk in your back, so just got to do your best to manage it,” Irving shared after Tuesday’s loss.

“It’s not to the point where it’s bad enough where I need surgery, which I’m grateful to God, but I have the support of my medical staff. A few other people in this locker room deal with the same thing. So just being smart about, that’s it. Not being too cautious,” he concluded.