Kenyon Martin Season Ending Injury?

More to come on this later …

Appearantly, according to NBATV, Kenyon Martin tore his petellar tendon and is done for the season.

If accurate, that would eliminate the Nuggets as a title contender (outside shot anyway).

Update via Yahoo Sports

Marc Spears reports

Denver Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin has a partial tear of his left patella tendon, and surgery is among the treatment options being considered, NBA sources told Yahoo! Sports.

Martin was scratched from Friday night’s game against the Indiana Pacers and the Nuggets will use the next 48 hours to decide on a treatment plan. Rest, therapeutic injections and surgery are among the options that could be used to treat an injury commonly referred to as “jumper’s knee.”

The Nuggets publicly announced only that Martin is suffering from chronic left knee patella tendinitis. On Friday evening, the team listed his playing status as day-to-day.

Martin has battled pain in his left knee for the past two months. He aggravated the condition when he banged his knee in a Jan. 20 game against the Golden State Warriors and has missed three games over the past four weeks. He underwent an MRI on Thursday after experiencing pain following Wednesday’s win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Martin has dealt with knee problems throughout his career, including microfracture surgery to both knees.

It sounds from that report that the Nuggets might try to play Kenyon Martin through the pain.

We’ll have to wait for more before we know for certain whether or not this is a season ending injury.

Another Report via Denver Post

Chris Dempsey writes

Signs are not looking good on forward Kenyon Martin’s troublesome left knee.

Martin missed Friday night’s game against the Indiana Pacers with what, prior to the game, the team said was patella tendonitis. A Yahoo! report later said Martin’s left knee has a partial tear in the patella tendon and might need surgery. Karl shrugged off speculation.

“I’m not going to go there,” Karl said. “I don’t know enough about the injury right now. We’re hoping everything is going to be OK.”

Asked about a possible surgical procedure, Karl said, “I don’t have enough information to elaborate on that, and I really don’t think that’s what Kenyon wants to do right now. He wants to figure out what’s going on first before we release what’s going on.”

Update: Kenyon Martin Talks

NBAFanhouse reports

If a report is accurate that Denver Nuggets power forward Kenyon Martin has a partial tear of his left patella tendon, he said he hasn’t been given that information about his knee.

However, Yahoo! Sports reported unnamed sources as saying Martin has a partial tear of his left patella tendon and surgery is among the treatment options being considered.

“I don’t know where Marc Spears got that from, man,” Martin said in an interview with FanHouse after Friday’s game, referring to the writer of the story. “It’s a little more than tendinitis, but I don’t know if it’s torn. I had an MRI (on Thursday). They looked at it. There’s a lot of speculation going on. … It’s more serious than tendinitis but I don’t know yet.”

Martin said he should know more Saturday. He said MRI results are still being evaluated, and he added no one has told him anything yet.

“The doctors, they’re just now getting to the results so how does anybody else know?” Martin said. “It’s just a report. I’m going on what the doctors say. I’m waiting on Dr. (Richard) Steadman (an outside doctor Martin is seeing in Vail, Colo.) to look at it and give me a synopsis, and then we’ll go to the team doctor and everything else.

It sounds like it’s too early to know what this injury is or is not at this point in time. We’ll have to wait.

Another Update That Lacks Clarity

Yahoo Sports reports

When Martin might return remains up in the air.

The team recently announced that Martin will begin platelet rich plasma therapy—a treatment which uses a patient’s own blood components to stimulate healing—with hopes that he’ll return this season, maybe in the playoffs.

“That’s one of our anchors,” Billups said. “That’s bad news for us. But the good news is there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

He’s been playing through persistent pain and swelling in the knee the last few weeks. The condition, which the Nuggets have described as chronic patella tendinitis, has apparently worsened in recent days, leading Martin to try PRP therapy.

“That’s one guy we’re going to miss playing without, especially defensively,” Billups said. “There’s no one person that can come in and make up for everything that he does.”

So, no clear idea of when Martin is expected to return but it sounds hopeful that he’ll be back at some point before or during the playoffs.

Denver Post Updates

• Martin awaits test results — link — similar to NBAFanhouse report up above
• Nothing yet on Kenyon — link
• Martin will return this season — link — similar to Yahoo Sports quote directly above
• Martin will be back but perhaps not until the playoffs — link

The second article

Martin said he expects to get more information from a team of doctors, which includes Steadman and Nuggets doctor, Dr. Steve Traina, on Monday. Then he’ll know exactly what the issue is, and what course of action he’ll take to rehab the problem. Martin said he had an MRI on the knee on Friday.

“If they tell me that it’s something more serious than I think it is and I got to get surgery, then I’ll have to do that,” Martin said. “But if they say I can rest and it will heal and I can play, then I’m going to do that. So, it’s just trying to let them get together, let the doctors put their heads together and see what it is and what I need to do and that’s what it’s going to be.”

The fourth article

The pain has persisted, and now Martin will miss an undetermined amount of time while undergoing platelet rich plasma (PRP) therapy. He plans to return this season, although perhaps not until the NBA playoffs, the team announced Monday. Martin began the PRP therapy Monday.

The good news is Martin won’t require surgery on the knee, which is suffering from patella tendinitis. The bad news is the race in the West is tight and without Martin, the Nuggets will be without their “defensive quarterback,” as coach George Karl calls him.

It continues

According to the website of the Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, where doctors have worked with Martin’s knee, PRP therapy is “an ‘autologous blood therapy’ that uses a patient’s own blood components to stimulate a healing response in damaged tissues. In response to an injury or tissue damage, your body naturally recruits platelets and white blood cells from the blood to initiate a healing response.”

Slightly more information than before but still not definitive timetable for Martin’s return.

Update: Denver Post says Martin’s first PRP treatment is done + that Martin is expected to be out for a few weeks. There is about a month left in the regular season.