Report: Karl-Anthony Towns, Jordan McLaughlin not close to returning
It was Nov. 28 when Karl-Anthony Towns fell to the court and grabbed his calf in Washington, D.C. The Timberwolves big man suffered a right calf strain, and while he avoided a more serious injury – like a torn Achilles – there are no indications that he's close to returning.
The same goes for Jordan McLaughlin, arguably the truest point guard on the roster who is also fighting back from a calf injury. He first injured his calf Nov. 21 against Miami and missed the next five games, only to return and re-injure his calf three games later. He hasn't played since exiting the Dec. 9 game in Utah.
In Jon Krawczynski's column at The Athletic about Anthony Edwards becoming the alpha of the Timberwolves, the longtime beat writer snuck in injury updates for Towns and McLaughlin.
"Karl-Anthony Towns has been out for more than a month and is still weeks away from returning from a calf injury," he wrote, later adding: "Towns isn’t coming back anytime soon. McLaughlin, the other ballhandler, doesn’t figure to be playing for weeks yet either."
When Towns was injured Nov. 28 the hope was that he would be able to return by mid-January. If he's "still weeks away," his return won't be until late January, perhaps February.
Calf injuries have wrecked Minnesota athletes in recent months. The Vikings just lost right tackle Brian O'Neill for the season with a calf muscle injury suffered at Lambeau Field on Sunday. And that comes on the heels of Vikings defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson missing more than a month with a calf injury earlier this season.
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.