Joel Embiid’s Knee Injury Leaves The Sixers With Few Options
After only 19 games, the 2024-25 season is now officially over for Philadelphia 76ers star center Joel Embiid. In a late-afternoon Friday news dump, the Sixers announced that Embiid is “medically unable to play and will miss the remainder of the season to focus on treatment and rehabilitation.”
Embiid underwent surgery on a torn meniscus in his left knee last February, but his recovery has not gone as anticipated. According to Kyle Neubeck of PHLY Sports, doctors with whom the Sixers consulted “mostly insisted that Embiid’s knee would improve and adjust as he played more.”
“Over time, flare-ups with swelling would become less common, for example, and Embiid would benefit from pushing the knee a bit to keep establishing new baselines over time,” Neubeck added. “It was not meant to be an instant recovery, but a period of acclimation. As other parts of the knee grow harder/stronger, symptoms become less frequent and less impactful.”
That wound up not being the case. After Embiid experienced another bout of swelling following the Sixers’ loss to the Brooklyn Nets in late February, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported he and the team were “consulting doctors and considering alternative options, such as surgery” for his knee.
Jake Fischer of The Stein Line reported that Embiid is “still hoping for some sort of cure-all procedure that would allow him to return to his MVP form.” However, he added that “neither the Sixers’ own medical staff nor any of the external doctors consulted throughout this saga had been able to pinpoint a clear-cut pathway to steering Embiid in his desired direction.”
