Magic’s Jonathan Isaac ruled out for remainder of season
Jonathan Isaac will miss the remainder of the Orlando Magic’ s 2021-22 season, the team announced Tuesday morning. Isaac hasn’ t played since tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the“ bubble” on Aug. 2, 2020, after the league returned from a four-month hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “First and foremost, the care of our players will always...
Jonathan Isaac will miss the remainder of the Orlando Magic’s 2021-22 season, the team announced Tuesday morning.
Isaac hasn’t played since tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the “bubble” on Aug. 2, 2020, after the league returned from a four-month hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He had just recovered from a major left knee injury earlier that season before tearing his ACL during the league’s restart.
“First and foremost, the care of our players will always be our top priority,” said Jeff Weltman, the Magic’s president of basketball operations. “We have to remember that Jonathan has missed essentially two years. While it continues to be a day-to-day process for him as he continues to strengthen and condition all aspects of his body, we feel we have reached a point where it would be prudent to say that he will not play this season.
“I understand this can be frustrating to our fans, but Jonathan has worked extremely hard and he is eager to return to game action, which is why we must continue to manage his rehabilitation with the big picture in mind. Quite frankly, we are just out of time to ramp him up to play in games this season.”
Isaac missed the entire 2020-21 season because of the injury. With only 13 games left in this season, he was running out of time to ramp up his rehab in anticipation of playing.
He hadn’t progressed to contact drills as of late last week.
Isaac, the sixth pick in the 2017 draft, is in the first season of a 4-year, $69.6 million extension he signed with the Magic in December 2020.
The Magic (18-51) will host the Brooklyn Nets (35-33) Tuesday at Amway Center.
This story will be updated.
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Khobi Price at khprice@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @khobi_price.
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