Rodney Stuckey Could Have Ended Up With A Broken Foot If He Kept Playing

Rodney Stuckey has missed 19 games with a sprain and bone bruise in his right foot, but catching the injury early might have saved his season.

The Indiana Pacers allowed him all the time he needed to heal was in his and the Indiana Pacers’ best interests.

As reported by Vigilant Sports’ Scott Agness, catching the injury early has saved the Indiana Pacers and Rodney Stuckey a lot of trouble.

"The bad news: Rodney Stuckey hasn’t suited up in more than six weeks. He’s dealing with what the team is calling a sprain and bone bruise in his right foot that has kept him in street clothes for 18 straight games … and counting.The good news: His season could’ve been over, but it’s not. Stuckey revealed that his injury is similar to what Memphis’ Marc Gasol and Phoenix’s T.J. Warren are recovering from. Both of them had season-ending surgery on their right foot.Gasol had surgery this week for a non-displaced Type II fracture of the navicular bone in his right foot. Warren had right foot surgery during last week’s All-Star break.“Fortunately they caught it early,” Stuckey said after the Pacers’ 108-105 win over the New York Knicks Monday night. He said that he has a stress reaction and was thankful that the team’s medical staff perhaps saved his season."

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It is better to have Stuckey for the stretch run than to have risked making this injury any worse than it was.

Stuckey has been one of the Pacers most important players coming off the bench the past two seasons, and the lack of depth has hurt Indiana at times over the past month or so. This season Stuckey has averaged 9.8 points, 3.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 25 minutes a game.

But he will return to the lineup soon. As in today, possibly.

This is somewhat of a surprise as he practiced for the first time in five weeks yesterday and afterwards commented that he wasn’t pushing his return, nor were the Pacers.

“I just try to come in and play aggressively, offensively, defensively and just try to be a spark off the bench. That’s pretty much my role I’m supposed to do,” Stuckey said. “My health is definitely important. I listen to what Carl (Eaton) and Josh (Corbeil)and all those guys have to say. I definitely didn’t want to go that route of breaking my foot. They were definitely being precautious about things, and I had to do what I had to do. I had to sit out to definitely make sure I didn’t break my foot because that is where it was leading too.”

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Stuckey joked the hardest part now is getting back in shape, but he was waiting for the training staff to give him the go ahead, which apparently they did as he’s listed as probable for tonight’s game. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. tonight.