Skip to content
Sixers
Link copied to clipboard

Bynum says MRI shows additional knee problems

An MRI exam conducted Tuesday on Andrew Bynum's knees revealed even more problems for the 76ers center, Bynum said.

"I had a little bit of a setback and we're just working through some issues with the right knee," said Andrew Bynum. (H. Rumph Jr/AP)
"I had a little bit of a setback and we're just working through some issues with the right knee," said Andrew Bynum. (H. Rumph Jr/AP)Read more

An MRI exam conducted Tuesday on Andrew Bynum's knees revealed even more problems for the 76ers center, Bynum said.

The results showed new developments: cartilage swelling in both knees and a bone bruise in his left knee, he said. Bynum previously had been diagnosed with a bone bruise in his right knee.

On Tuesday, Bynum visited David W. Altchek, an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York. Before Friday's game with Utah, Bynum said he had experienced a setback in his rehab, which the Sixers hope will make him available to play by the middle of January. Bynum said there has been no adjustment to his timetable for a return.

"I had a little bit of a setback and we're just working through some issues with the right knee," said Bynum, who has yet to practice with the Sixers since being acquired in August. "I kind of have a mirror thing going on with my left knee. I don't know what's going on, but the doctors are saying pretty much that it's a weakened cartilage state."

Bynum, a former all-star with the Los Angeles Lakers who said he has never had cartilage problems before, had the MRI done on independent of the Sixers.

Bynum, 25, apparently sprang the news and the results of his examination on the team. About a half hour after Bynum spoke in front of his locker stall, Sixers general manager Tony DiLeo had no more information available concerning the results of Bynum's examination.

"They're not giving me anything real definite," Bynum said. "I've just got to wait for the cartilage to get stronger and that's pretty much what's going on. The pain is about the same but there is swelling in both knees that we have under control. It's the same spot, bone bruise on both sides."

DiLeo said the team would reevaluate Bynum in mid-December, planning MRIs on both of knees then. DiLeo did not say that the time frame for Bynum's return had changed. However, he said that Bynum's knees would tell the team what to do.

The center will play "when he's ready, and it's hard to predict when he's ready, hopefully sooner than later," DiLeo said. "Our main concern is Andrew's health. We want to have a long relationship with him. But I think it's the same timetable because both knees have to heal. So that's what we're going with. When the pain subsides, when he can do more strenuous activities on the court, that's when we'll know a lot more."