The Dallas Mavericks lost one of their key cogs in small forward Wesley Matthews, who suffered a stress fracture in his right proximal fibula, ending his 2017-18 season.
Matthews injury is a minor one, as far as fractures are concerned, and while he will rest and allow the injury to heal on its own, teammate Harrison Barnes praised his eagerness to get back on the floor.
“He’s got a high threshold for pain, he’s always going to go out there and battle through injuries,” said Barnes, according to Dwain Price of Mavs.com. “Even to the point where the training staff got to be like, ‘Hey man, you got to have a seat.’ That speaks to his toughness.”
Even as the injury was first being investigated, head coach Rick Carlisle held out hope it was something minor.
“Our doctors said, ‘Hey, we should make 100 percent sure, take an X-ray,’ and the X-ray revealed a very small shadow and then they confirmed it yesterday on an MRI.”
Having dealt with a share of injuries throughout his career, Matthews has still been a pillar to this team as the three-and-D archetypical two-way player in the lineup, making the news even tougher during a season that has seen more bodies in the bench than on the court.
“He’s not even in a brace or a cast or anything,” added Carlisle. “It’s just something where he can’t play as fractures go, it’s a pretty minor one. But it’s a fracture on your leg, so you can’t play.”
“It’s probably going to be the end of the season before he would be ready to play, so he’s likely done for the year. I talked to him last night. He’s in good spirits.”
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