Dr. Lane Naugher, a surgeon at the San Antonio Orthopaedic Group, has performed plenty of operations to correct ruptured left quadriceps tendon, the injury that has sidelined Spurs star Tony Parker, and he tolds 1200 WOAI news it is a serious injury with a very long recovery time.
"It is an injury to the knee, and actually an injury to the tendon that attaches your thigh muscles to your kneecap," he said. "This is a very bad injury."
He says this is the tendon that allows a person to walk, so surgery is absolutely mandatory to repair it.
He says he is not surprised that Parker suddenly crumpled to the hardwood during Wednesday night's playoff game against the Rockets; he says an injury of this type is usually caused not be a single blow, but a lifetime of stress followed by what he calls the 'one imperfect step.'
"It can just be the imperfect step, and you put the pressure right on the tendon in the right way, and it pops."
So what is Tony's prognosis?
Dr. Naugher, who stresses he has not examined Parker and is not his physician, says generally the operation itself is not that involved, but he recovery time is very long.
"At least six months before he is back to any type of basketball activities, maybe even nine months to a year before he would be cleared to play at any kind of elite level, like the NBA."
While this is the same injury that ended Charles Barkley's NBA career, Dr. Naugher says for Parker, who is 34, this may not be a career ending injury, but will definitely keep him off the court well into, and possibly through, next season.