Despite defeating the Sacramento Kings tonight, the Houston Rockets may have suffered their biggest blow this season. Rockets rising star Alperen Sengun was carried off the court via a wheelchair after sustaining a horrific injury to his lower right leg during the game. As per initial reports, Sengun will undergo an MRI scan on his right knee and ankle. Meanwhile, YouTuber, Dr. Brian Sutterer, broke down what Sengun may have sustained during the fall.
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Houston Rockets center Alperen Sengun took a scary fall during the game while trying to defend a fastbreak play by Sacramento. Kings center Domantas Sabonis rushed toward the rim while Sengun and Jabari Smith Jr. both contested his shot.
Domantas Sabonis and Alperen Sengun both fell on the floor but the Rockets center got the worst of it. Clearly, in pain and agony, Sengun held on to his right leg as he was then carried off the court with the help of a wheelchair.
After the game, Dr Brian Sutterer gave an insight into what Sengun may have sustained after that fall. According to first impressions, it seemed as if Alperen Sengun ended up with a hyperextended knee based on how his right leg bent while he tried to land on the floor.
What many may have missed out on during the first walkthrough of the replay was how Sengun also managed to twist his ankle while trying to find his footing to land safely on the floor. After much speculation, this is what Dr. Sutterer had to say.
“With these types of mechanisms with this much twisting of the ankle, you can always also have a fracture or potentially injuries to the tendon. So, the first thing that we didn’t even see him grabbing here, that might also come up in the evaluation, is a typical lateral inversion ankle sprain or potentially fracture to that lower end of the fibial bone on the outside of the ankle.”
According to Dr. Sutterer, the ankle twist sustained by Sengun is something that seemed more alarming than the damage to his right knee. However, both will be studied by team doctors immediately, However, at the moment, there is no real update on the severity of Sengun’s injury. Unfortunately though, given how gruesome the injury looked, it’s unlikely for the diagnosis to be a positive one.
What is the verdict on Alperen Sengun?
Dr. Brian Sutterer has given his expert opinion in the past when it came to the league issuing information regarding injuries to players. He had even called out a few NBA analysts over their choice of words when Joel Embiid’s injury was made public.
But coming back to Alperen Sengun, Dr. Sutterer believes that the ankle twist may be more severe and can lead to longer rehabilitation if not treated properly. This is what he concluded with in the end.
“I think the ankle sprain, even and at it and itself, probably is not something that he’s gonna be thinking about till he gets back in the locker room. That could, on its own, be a month’s absence. When you add in the likely bone bruising and the potential LCL injury that he could have in his knee, I think at a minimum we’re looking at a couple of weeks or a few weeks absence here.”
“I’m hopeful that he avoided anything major in terms of a surgical injury at the knee, just because the amount of hyperextension doesn’t look that significant…But I will warn you, with these hyperextensions, all bets honestly are off. It’s really hard to predict just based on the way it looks.”
Here is what sports injury analyst, Dr. Evan Jeffries had to say based on first impressions of the video.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, Alperen Sengun will undergo an MRI on both his right knee and ankle tonight.
Our prayers go out to Alperen Sengun during this tough time, and we wish the bright young star a speedy recovery.
