Darren Collison underwent successful arthroscopic left knee surgery on Tuesday (Feb. 6) and is expected to be sidelined for two to three weeks, the team announced.
Collison has surgery at OrthoIndy Hospital, and it was presumably performed by team orthopedist Dr. Tim Hupfer, who is part of the the OrthoIndy group.
The Pacers’ starting point guard suffered the injury against the Philadelphia 76ers on Feb. 3. It kind of locked up, it was described, and then an MRI two days later made clear that surgery was necessary.
Of note, it had been an ongoing issue for him throughout the season, he just impressively managed through it to start in all 52 games.
The timing of the surgery works out to the Pacers’ favor surgery completed right before the weeklong NBA All-Star break. Collison, who is 30 years old, will be three weeks removed from surgery on Feb. 27 – two games past the All-Star break. He missed three games before the break, all Pacers victories.
“These are things that you train for and our assistant coaches work real hard to try to prepare players for, situations like this where guys go down and guys have to replace them,” coach Nate McMillan said of the team having to carry on without him.
Collison is averaging 12.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 5.3 assists per game. More impressively, he’s nearly apart of the 50-40-90 club. He’s shooting 49.5 percent from the field, 43.2 percent from long range, and 89.7 percent at the foul line.
In the meantime, expect additional minutes for third-string point guard Joe Young.
[Photo: Frank McGrath/PS&E]