The Philadelphia 76ers have officially ruled out forward Ben Simmons for the remainder of his rookie NBA season after tests revealed his broken right foot was not fully healed.
The No.1 overall draft pick out of LSU is "heartbroken" over the news, Sixers general manager Bryan Colangelo told reporters in making the announcement Friday morning.
"I have always known that there was a desire to get him back on the court when healthy," Colangelo said.
"We've always anticipated there would be an opportunity for him to play, hopefully this season.
"But there was always the outside chance that it didn't happen because there wasn't complete and full healing. And we weren't going to put Ben Simmons in a place where he was (susceptible) to a re-fracture.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"There are genetic things that change the healing patterns of people.
"So if everybody had done their research and saw that most Jones fractures took three to four months, great. But it's not three to four months in every case, it's three to four months in most cases.
"He's heartbroken. He wants to play. He wants to be out there. It's eating him alive, I'm sure."
The 2.08 metre, 108kg Simmons fractured his foot on September 30, the final day of training camp.
He underwent surgery in October to repair an acute Jones fracture of the fifth metatarsal of his right foot.
The Sixers said his latest scan taken Thursday showed the injury was not healing as expected.
The 20-year-old from Melbourne has not appeared in a regular-season game.
He played a single season at LSU, where he averaged 19.2 points, 11.8 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 2.0 steals per game.
The 76ers are 21-35 and have 26 games remaining this season.
