Mahinmi completes 5-on-5 work, discusses plantar fascia — Catchings recalls similar injury

As the Pacers continue to have numerous players on their injury report, Ian Mahinmi is the latest to come off of it. The team’s reserve center was diagnosed with a torn left plantar fascia on December 7th and expected to be out six to eight weeks.

Last week, he began playing 2-on-2 with Chris Copeland, Damjan Rudež, and rookie Shayne Whittington.

“The foot was OK,” Mahinmi said after Monday’s practice. “Not 100 percent but OK. I figured that if I could help the team, then why not.”

Mahinmi is happy to be working his way back into the fold.

So, head coach Frank Vogel had Mahinmi dress Friday against Boston and Saturday in Philadelphia, to be available if necessary. Mahinmi and Vogel agreed that it would be best for him to go through an entire practice with 5-on-5 work before taking the floor.

However, as it turned out, he was needed in Philly — in the third quarter, when both Roy Hibbert and Lavoy Allen were in foul trouble.

Mahinmi checked in (after missing 18 games) with 4:35 remaining in the third period. He played four minutes, fouled twice and hit one of two free throw attempts. But it was progress, especially considering that this is only week six.

“No limitations. Just played through [the pain,]” he said.

Monday was Mahinmi’s first 5-on-5 full-court work since before the injury in early December, and he said it went well.

Catchings Recalls Her Similiar Injury Experience

One familiar face around Bankers Life Fieldhouse has also previous dealt with a torn plantar fascia: Three-time Olympic Gold Medalist Tamika Catchings.

Go back to September of 2011, and to the WNBA Eastern Conference Finals. Late in the fourth quarter of Game 2, she went down with the painful injury and required help to exit the floor. Like many who have suffered a torn plantar fascia, it was a non-contact injury.

“Just popped,” Catchings recently recalled in light of Mahinmi’s injury. “It was just the weirdest thing.”

She tore her right plantar fascia, but because it was Catchings, she was determined to play in Game 3.

Catchings needed help getting off the floor, but she wasn’t going to let anything keep her out of Game 3.

The team flew home Sunday and she went straight to have an MRI taken.

“The next day I went to like three different doctors to get their opinions and see if I could play,” said Catchings.

Still, on Tuesday, about 45 minutes before the decisive Game 3 on their home floor, she wasn’t sure if she would be able to play. But, the very determined Catchings thought, “It’s playoffs. I got to play.”

I was a ball boy for the team at the time and always warmed Catchings up. Well, with about 45 minutes before the tip, I was summoned from the main court back to the practice court where Catchings would need test her right foot.

The Fever’s medical staff, with the assistance of Pacers head trainer Josh Corbeil, was there to observe Catchings. She had already received a shot for the pain, and the doctors told her it’s not like she could do anything else to the injury. “What’s done is done,” they instructed her.

They had also ordered her two pairs of custom orthotics to help with the pressure of the foot.

“We were able to order those and literally got those before the game,” she recounted.

The medical staff wanted to see Catchings play offense and defense, and for her to decide which orthotics she would wear.

What we learned: The training staff is excellent, she wasn’t going to let anything keep her out of this pivotal game, and she beat me — bad foot, worn down from playing a WNBA season and all.

I was out of breath by the end of it; she was just getting started.

Though she wasn’t in the starting lineup, Catchings admirably played 24 minutes and scored six points, yet they still lost.

Unlike Mahinmi, Catchings then had eight months until next season to rehab the injury so she wasn’t in any rush.

In the first week of Mahinmi’s rehab, he didn’t do much. He mainly rested and elevated the foot, allowing for the swelling decrease. Back in mid-December, he couldn’t place his left foot completely on the ground.

Mahinmi was in the treadmill pool almost everyday, in the weight room, and working hard on his rehab with assistant trainer Carl Eaton. It’s an injury he hasn’t had before in his seven-year NBA career, and one he hopes not to have again.

Now back on the basketball floor, he wraps tape around his regular orthotics and must learn to play through some of the pain. It’s likely that this injury, and the grind of an NBA season, won’t completely heal until the offseason.