Kyrie Irving Breaks Silence On Returning to Nets for the Remaining Season

His injury got worse.

SB Nation

Kyrie Irving has addressed his shoulder injury got worse and now this injury has threatened his debut for the Nets season. Although he has improved drastically since getting anti-inflammatories, he doesn’t know when he’ll return and admits he may still need arthroscopic surgery in the future.

“I’m in a better place now that it’s been some significant time,” Irving said speaking about his shoulder impingement before the Nets’ 121-102 loss to the Raptors on Saturday. “I tried to go without any anti-inflammatories, which is why it took so long."

“Now I’m at a place where the next step was to either get a cortisone shot or get surgery. So that was the ultimatum I was fixed with. So now I’m just doing the best I can to live off this cortisone and move forward if I need surgery in the future.”

“It just sucks, man,” Irving said to NY Post. “It really is disheartening when you’re working your tail off to be at a certain level and your shooting shoulder just starts to give out on you a little bit. You’re looking at it like ‘Hey, it’s just a shoulder. Let me ice this thing and get back out there."

Coach Kenny Atkinson commented about Irving's injury. 

"Wish we could help him more. But the body’s got to heal, it’s got to get better,” Kenny Atkinson said. “Obviously he put some other options out there, which behind the scenes we’re talking about all this stuff. So frustrated is the best word.” 

Irving also spoke about the next steps for this progress. 

“The cortisone shot lasts as long as it can. You either continue to get cortisone shots, which is obviously detrimental to your health in your muscles, or you go get arthroscopic surgery. I know getting [the shot] more than once or twice, you’re putting yourself at risk. I’ll make the best decision for my health," Irving said. "I want to go out and play, so just continue to rehab and live with the results of me going out there and giving it an actual shot … see where we land and move forward after the season.”