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Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez underwent successful surgery this morning, January 4, to repair the fractured fifth metatarsal of his right foot, Nets’ General Manager Billy King announced. The procedure was performed by Dr. James Nunley, Duke University Medical Center’s Department Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery, Nets’ foot and ankle specialist Dr. Martin O’Malley and team medical director Dr. Riley Williams III. In addition to the fracture repair, a second procedure, a first metatarsal osteotomy, was performed to unload and protect the injured area.
“With this procedure, we both fixed the broken bone (fifth metatarsal) in Brook’s right foot and repositioned another bone, so that his sole of his foot will bear weight more evenly than before,” said Dr. Williams. “The repositioning portion of the surgery lessens the stress on the fractured bone, and decreases the likelihood of re-injury in the future.”
Lopez, who was injured during the December 20th game at Philadelphia, is out for the remainder of the season, but is expected to make a full recovery (or so the Nets hope) and will be back on the court for offseason workouts.
At the time of his injury, Lopez was averaging a team-high 20.7 points along with 6.0 rebounds and 1.76 blocks through 17 games played this season.
