Kyrie Irving won't be out for long, will play with mask
Kyrie Irving missed Sunday's nail biter over the Toronto Raptors with a facial fracture he endured from an errant Aron Baynes elbow in Friday night's matchup with the Charlotte Hornets. The first whispers after Friday's game were that Irving could miss extensive time and that he may have suffered in a concussion along with his fracture, but coach Brad Stevens has said that as of yesterday afternoon there were no indications the Kyrie suffered a concussion at all. Via Adam Himmelsbach of the Boston Globe:
“We’ll keep monitoring for symptoms of [a concussion],” Stevens said. “We’re hopeful to have him back sooner rather than later.”
Given that there has been no sign of a concussion Irving should have no issues playing with the facial fracture, which will take about 2 weeks to fully heal:
Sources: Boston’s Kyrie Irving will likely miss Sunday’s game with facial fracture, then play through the injury with a fitted mask for two weeks.— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 11, 2017
In case anyone doesn't remember, Kyrie is no stranger to the mask. Irving with the mask on is a force to be reckoned with. He's got three 40+ points games donning the plastic mask and one of them came at the Celtics expense:
With a matchup with the Brooklyn Nets on deck for Tuesday night the Celtics may choose to keep Irving sidelined for another game just as a precaution, but I'd be shocked if he's not in the lineup for Thursday night's showdown with the Golden State Warriors on National TV.
Photo Credit - Streeter Lecka/Getty Images
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