We're finally getting a clearer picture with regards to the mysterious injury that has kept Minnesota Timberwolves guard D'Angelo Russell out of action for the past few games. Unfortunately, it isn't exactly the type of update Wolves fans have been be hoping for.

According to NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, Russell is now expected to miss a significant amount of time after it was deemed necessary for the 24-year-old to go under the knife:

This is a bit of a worse-case-scenario for Russell and the Timberwolves. The 6-foot-4 guard was previously tagged with a sore left leg — a minor injury that many believed he would be able to recover from sooner rather than later. As it turns out, this is not going to be the case.

The last time we saw Russell in action was on February 8 against the Dallas Mavericks. He was coming off a one-game absence and managed just five minutes of action before calling it a night. Russell, who himself has been dealing with several injuries throughout the campaign, sat out the previous game due to a right quad issue, which leads us to believe that that injury was unrelated to the left knee problem he is currently dealing with.

Since then, the former second overall pick was forced to sit out Minnesota's next three games. The fact that he had to miss that much action due to a sore leg was sketchy enough for us to believe that there was a bigger problem at hand. True enough, this recent development confirms our suspicion.

Russell's current timetable means that he won't be able to return until mid-March at the earliest.