Optimism after Karl-Anthony Towns suffers non-contact leg injury
Karl-Anthony Towns suffered what the Timberwolves are calling a right calf strain during Minnesota's blowout loss to the Washington Wizards Monday night.
Towns fell to the ground and grabbed his right calf with 5:25 left in the third quarter.
"Obviously super concerned about that. Big blow for us," said head coach Chris Finch after the game, "We'll have an update tomorrow." Finch said he's hopeful that it's a calf strain and not a torn Achilles.
"Does not appear to be Achilles by video," tweeted renowned sport injury expert Dr. David J. Chao, better known as "Pro Football Doc."
Injury experts at Sports Injury Central reviewed the play and agree with Chao.
"The eccentric loading injury mechanism is often associated with an Achilles tendon rupture but can also apply to a calf strain, as with Kevin Durant, Luka Doncic, and Damian Lillard in recent years," Sports Injury Central explained late Monday night.
"The length of his absence will depend on the severity of the strain discovered by the MRI," it added, noting that he could miss all of December.
"From what I can gather, everyone is breathing a big sigh of relief with Karl-Anthony Towns' injury. Still more evaluation tomorrow, but it is looking like it could have been so much worse," tweeted Timberwolves beat writer Jon Krawcyznski, of The Athletic.
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski echoed that feeling: "Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns will undergo an MRI on Tuesday, but there’s some early optimism that he may have avoided a substantial injury to his lower right leg, sources tell ESPN."
More information is expected following Towns' MRI on Tuesday.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.