The New Orleans Pelicans have a major injury update on high-flying forward Zion Williamson, who's been out since Jan. 4 as he recovers from a right hamstring strain.

Appearing on-air during the Pelicans matchup against the Denver Nuggets, TNT reporter Chris Haynes says that Williamson was cleared on Tuesday morning to start running.

Up until this point, he's only been allowed to do “stationary shooting and dribbling.”

“The plan now is to be reevaluated next week — a week from today — and they'll go from there. But the Pelicans caution with this: they don't want to put a timeline on a return out there because it's all predicated on how he handles this phase.”

Immensely powerful and explosive, the Pelicans have more than missed Zion's interior dominance these last few weeks. They've gone 3-12 since Zion's injury and are currently on a nine-game losing streak despite getting star forward Brandon Ingram back on Jan. 25.

Looking at the bigger picture, it's clear that New Orleans wants to take things slow with the face of their franchise, especially after signing the big man to a five-year, $193 million maximum rookie extension in June 22. Williamson has already missed 174 career games at 22-years-old, so making sure that they can get the most out of him could require strategic planning and is most certainly on the minds of the coaching staff and executives.

There aren't many players averaging 26.0 points, 7.0 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.1 steals per game this season. There are even fewer that can do that while shooting 60.8 percent from the field and 36.8 percent from 3-point range.